How to Be a Surrogate While Working
One of the requirements surrogacy has for our prospective surrogates is that they are financially stable. This causes many working moms to wonder if they can how to be a surogate while working.
Thankfully, the opportunity of surrogacy is a wonderful experience for many working moms.
It’s a second chance to take a second job that won’t require them to leave work or quit.
Several of our surrogates are also working moms. If balancing your work life can be an issue, here’s what you need to know about joining our agency while you’re working.
Should You Inform Your HR That You’re a Surrogate?
A concern that some working moms might have is if they need to disclose that the pregnancy they have is a surrogacy. This primarily depends on your state. However, most states do not require that you inform HR about the nature of your pregnancy.
We believe that if feel that your business or work situation is more like a family, then you may feel comfortable in telling them.
They could become a great support system for you. However, if you’re unsure of your place in the company, then it’s better not to disclose the nature of your pregnancy.
We encourage women to treat their surrogate pregnancy as if it was their own in work situations. This may prove a more comfortable working environment for them since they won’t run into certain coworkers who may have particular feelings towards surrogacy.
Does the Federal Medical Leave Act Apply to California Surrogacy?
One search you may do while searching for “surrogacy near me” is if FMLA applies to your situation. As a parent yourself, you likely enjoyed taking a few months from work to bond with your child. However, the situation isn’t the same.
We have had surrogates qualify for FMLA, but it does depend. You won’t be taking the baby home with you. Instead, the intended parents struggling with infertility will take the baby home. The baby is also not genetically yours.
This is because the process of being a surrogate only utilizes gestational surrogacy. This is a kind of surrogacy where an egg donor or a sperm donor is used in a fertility clinic to form an embryo.
The surrogate is not the egg donor. Because of this, the baby isn’t related to the surrogate at all.
After you give birth to the baby, you may be allowed some time off work to recuperate, and may qualify. Be sure to check with your HR department.
Can You Expect Paid Time Off?
Perhaps when you were pregnant before, you were given paid time off to go to the hospital for doctor visits or for other reasons. You may expect the same kind of treatment with a surrogate pregnancy. This isn’t always the case.
Understanding if you’re able to receive paid time off should involve a quick discussion with your employer or visiting HR. How to be a surrogate while working can create some issues in the workplace, however most employers are very understanding.
This is one of the reasons why it might not be worth it to tell them that you’re carrying a surrogate baby. They may be less inclined to award you paid time off for your medical visits.
How you can be a surrogate while working and Get Paid
After you join our agency and we help the intended parents find a surrogate through you, you’ll get started with IVF. The intended parents need to find an egg donor or a sperm donor if their own bodies aren’t healthy enough for IVF. Then you’ll undergo an embryo transfer.
Once your pregnancy is confirmed after an embryo transfer, you’ll be able to start receiving compensation for any time away from work that you take for medical visits.
If you become successfully pregnant, you will start your base compensation at $60,000-$65,000.
Typically this is paid in 10 installments of $6,000 plus other benefits you are able to receive.
To understand how our agency’s compensation works, you should look through our compensation page.
When Can You Return to Work?
The process of how to be a surrogate while working is long. Sometimes surrogates are required to take bed-rest leave for up to a week or more after IVF transfer.
Other times, surrogates are only required to take leave for a few days, it really depends on your IVF clinic’s instructions.
Generally, most surrogate mothers return to work within 3 weeks of birth. Even just 5 weeks total if they are ordered bed-rest (this is over the entire process).
We have never had a surrogate’s work deny her or take any adverse action for time off of work- ever.
IVF can also take a long time. Then there are nine months of pregnancy. Because of this long marathon, you may be anxious to return to work without worrying about the pressure of being a surrogate.
The length of time it takes for you to return to work depends on your employer and the kind of birth you performed. A vaginal birth requires most mothers to stay at home for six weeks.
If you have a C-Section, then you may need to wait even longer.
However, we have had cases before where surrogates were able to return to work early after speaking with their employer.
Can You Really Work Full-Time While Being a Surrogate?
One aspect that keeps many women from choosing to become a surrogate is that they believe they can’t work as a full-time mother and be a surrogate at the same time.
This just isn’t the case. It’s completely possible to work full-time and help intended parents struggling with infertility. So many of our surrogates have jobs and complete surrogacies successfully.
The only part that is a little difficult is IVF appointments and embryo transfer.
This is the part that will keep you out of the office the most aside from the actual birth. Once you make it through that, you’re able to work while you’re pregnant just as you likely did before with your own child.
Perhaps one of the coolest things about being a surrogate is that you can earn money while working your normal job.
