A Typical Day For A Gestational Carrier
Even if you already have children of your own, committing to serve as a gestational carrier is the beginning of a journey that will be different from any prior pregnancies that you have. Let’s take a look at a typical day that you would go through carrying a child as a surrogate.
6:30 AM
You wake up feeling that sense of queasiness that you’ve become familiar with. You get up and hurry to the refrigerator and pull out a tub of yogurt or an egg to scramble – anything to get on your stomach that provides a healthy protein to stabilize your digestion a little bit. Your two older kids haven’t started to stir yet, so you head back to bed for a little more rest before you greet the day.
7:00 AM
Your cell phone alarm goes off to wake you up, and then a few seconds later your phone vibrates. You check it to see a text message from your surrogate consultant. As a gestational carrier working with an agency, you have someone sending you reminders of every appointment – and today, you have a sonogram scheduled at an imaging clinic about half an hour away at 1:30. You text back a quick “Thank You” and hop into a quick shower before your kids wake up.
10:00 AM
Your older kids are off to school, and you are heading to a local department store to pick up some maternity clothes. Up until now, the clothes you’d been wearing before had been fine – you’d actually lost a little bit of weight in the early stages of your pregnancy. But you got your stipend for maternity clothing in the mail a couple of weeks ago, and now you’re ready to go and spend it.
11:00 AM
Your phone buzzes, and you check to see that you have an email in your inbox from your surrogate consultant. As a gestational carrier, you have the dreams of a pair of intended parents growing inside you, and they are going to want to know how things are going from time to time. The email says that the intended parents would like to talk to you briefly after your sonogram appointment to see how things are going. The parents will get to see the sonogram, of course, but some parents like to talk to the gestational carrier now and then as well. It’s up to you whether you communicate with them over the phone or through messages that you send through the surrogacy consultant.
Your decision here will depend on how you feel about the intended parents – and how much contact you want to have. Some gestational carriers bond with the intended parents and have a close connection throughout the pregnancy. In other cases, the surrogate wants a more distant relationship and communicates through the consultant. One advantage of using an agency is that you get to control how much contact you have. You have a pretty positive relationship with the intended parents, so you make a note on your calendar to call the couple when you get home.
1:30 PM
The nurse calls you from the waiting room to come back for your sonogram. Before you became a gestational carrier, your medical insurance was so basic that it would have left you stuck with a big co-pay to get this imaging done, but the coverage you receive as part of your work as a gestational carrier means that you just show up for the appointment. You already received the money to cover your co-pay, so you’re not out of pocket for this appointment today. The sonogram goes smoothly, and then you’re on your way.
3:30 PM
You just got off the phone with your intended parents, and they are excited to hear that things are going so well. You hear the mailbox bang shut on the front of your house, so you walk out to find a couple of catalogs and circulars – and an envelope from your surrogacy agency. As a gestational carrier, you receive a monthly check throughout your pregnancy, and that check came today. You get in the car so that you can swing by the bank and deposit it on the way to picking your own kids up from school. You’re one month’s payment closer to having your return to college paid for!
