If you live in Georgia and you’re considering surrogacy – either as an intended parent or a surrogate mother – this guide will help educate you on surrogacy, the process, costs, matching and more. Surrogacy is a monumental journey, and learning all you can is a great first step!
Surrogacy can seem like an overwhelming and complex process at first for surrogate mothers and intended parents hoping to grow their family. We're here to help you navigate surrogacy in Georgia, from the surrogacy process, to how to become a surrogate, how to find a surrogate and much more.
Surrogacy allows couples and individuals in Georgia from a variety of backgrounds, ages and sexual orientations to build their families.
The types of intended parents from Georgia who may use surrogacy to grow their families are:
Georgia is a surrogacy-friendly state for both gestational carriers and intended parents. Whether you in live in a large city like Atlanta or Birmingham, or anywhere in between – here's everything you need to know about gestational surrogacy.
If you live in Georgia and you're ready to start a surrogacy journey, there are many benefits for you as intended parents.
Local IVF clinics. Circle works closely with the most-successful IVF clinics, some of which are located in Georgia and the greater east coast. Working with a local clinic helps to reduce travel costs associated with your journey. If you’re already established with an IVF clinic we’re happy to work with your clinic of choice.
Local surrogates. If you're interested in working with a surrogate mother who lives close to you, Circle works with surrogates from up and down the east coast, including Georgia.
We've got people on both coasts. Circle is based in both Boston and the Bay Area, and also has an office in New York. We have team members across the country and around the world that help intended parents on their journeys.
Flexible consultation schedule. We are available for consults via Skype during the day and evenings and weekends. We'll work with your schedule to find a time that works best to connect.
If you are new to the surrogacy process, you may feel a little overwhelmed and the process itself can seem a little complex, with many parties involved. Working with a surrogacy agency can help you navigate the milestones and events throughout your journey so that you can focus on the most important thing: preparing for the arrival of your baby!
The overall surrogacy process can take an average of 16-22 months. While that may feel like a long time, remember that 9 months of that is your surrogate being pregnant!
There are 5 key milestones in your surrogacy process:
Consultation & Sign-On. Meet with agency, sign on, create embryos.
Matching with your Surrogate. Complete parent profile and surrogate match.
Medical & Legal screenings/contracts. Medical screening, legal contracts, embryo transfer.
Pregnancy. Ultrasounds and check ins, prepare for birth.
Parenthood! Delivery day and new parent joy, travel home.
Working with a successful surrogacy agency with Circle Surrogacy means having a knowledgeable team partnering with you at every step.
Beginning your journey toward surrogacy is a big step, so it's important to do your research! Not every surrogacy agency is a good fit, finding a surrogacy agency with which you have good chemistry and who shares your views about your surrogacy process is key to a successful journey.
Also, surrogacy laws vary by state, so working with an agency who has lawyers knowledgeable in ART and surrogacy law is important. They will help you understand the surrogacy laws in Georgia.
If you require an egg donor, you will match with a young woman prior to matching with your surrogate. You can search our egg donor database where you'll find bright and ambitious young women who are excited for the opportunity to help you grow your family. Most times, intended parents will be working with their donor and creating embryos while they are waiting to be matched with their gestational carrier.
Next, you'll work with your Program Coordination Team to find the best surrogate match. Circle encourages you to form a strong bond with the woman who will carry your baby(ies). If you'd like to find a surrogate in Georgia, you can share your preference with our matching team.
During pregnancy, you'll be further developing your relationship with your surrogate, and if she lives close to Georgia, perhaps even visiting her for appointments. Your agency will be supporting you through each milestone, helping you prepare for traveling for the birth and ensuring you have everything you need to return home safely and securely.
If you’re ready to start looking into surrogacy, you have many resources available. There are 3 key steps as you start the process.
1. Research surrogacy.
Surrogacy is a wonderful and fulfilling way to grow your family, but it's important to do your research to ensure that surrogacy is right for you. You’ll get an understanding about what surrogacy is, what the surrogacy process is like, and how to begin. A surrogacy journey requires a great deal of trust and honesty from all parties.
2. Agency or independent?
When you've decided that surrogacy is how you would like to grow your family, you can either work with an agency, or do an independent surrogacy journey. Understanding the pros and cons of both will help you make your decision. Intended parents who are looking for more support and management of their surrogacy will tend to work with an agency of professionals. Other intended parents who prefer to manage their journey and all of the steps on their own will do an independent journey.
3. Choosing an agency.
There are many surrogacy agencies out there, and there is one that's the right fit for you. Think about what's important to you - experience, location, size – and compare and contrast. Meeting with an agency is also a great way to see if you "fit" from a personality standpoint as well.
As you look into specific agencies, you’ll notice that they offer surrogacy consultations. At Circle Surrogacy, a surrogacy consultation is an in-depth meeting with a parent intake consultant and a lawyer. These meetings are complementary and are not a commitment. This private meeting will allow us to get to know you and your story, as well as talk about surrogacy and the process as it relates to your personal situation. We'll help you understand surrogacy programs and costs and costs, as well.
Intended parents should schedule a consultation if they believe they are a year or less away from starting their journey, and they are ready emotionally and financially.
Once intended parents have identified 1-3 agencies that seem like a good fit, we recommend reaching out to each surrogacy agency and scheduling a time to speak with their parent intake team. After you have initial conversations and questions answered, you can decide if you're ready for a full surrogacy consultation. You can use our list of questions to help you compare surrogacy agencies.
Although we prefer to meet in-person with intended parents for our consultations, everyone’s health and safety is our primary focus. Instead of in-person meetings in the near future, we are offering free consultations with our team over Skype or Zoom.
If you're not ready for a full consultation but would like more information, you can schedule a 15-minute chat with a member of our team.
Bringing a baby into your family through surrogacy is one of the greatest joys you can experience. Not only will you be having the baby you've dreamed of, but you'll also form a bond with your gestational surrogate – and her family– that is like no other. Surrogacy is a safe way to have the family you desire; Intended parents from Georgia have been using surrogacy as a means to grow their families for decades.
Intended parents come to surrogacy after they’ve experienced loss, or struggled with their own fertility. Circle Surrogacy has optimized their programs and cost to provide the most cost security and success for intended parents.
Circle Surrogacy has a success rate of 99.3% for bringing home a baby. This rate is based on intended parents who completed one or two transfers, or had at least 3 transfers. It’s the highest success rate in the industry, and has been audited by an outside agency.
Our Parent Intake team has years of experience (some have worked with Circle for 15 years!) partnering with intended parents from the very early part of a journey, even before they are ready to commit. We’ll answer all of your questions and provide guidance and support.
If you live in Georgia you can plan for surrogacy costs with Circle Surrogacy of $125,500 or $135,500 (surrogacy only, depending on the program you choose) and $149,500 or $159,500 (surrogacy plus egg donation, depending on the program you choose). These costs are exclusive of IVF costs.
To better understand what goes into surrogacy costs, it helps to look at them compartmentalized into four categories:
Most agencies do not offer fixed costs for any of these cost categories, which can result in surprise fees and financial uncertainty throughout the surrogacy journey. However, Circle Surrogacy fixes the costs for Professional Fees, Gestational Carrier and Egg Donor Fees and Medical & Insurance Expenses.
Circle Surrogacy offers two fixed cost surrogacy programs in Georgia from which intended parents can choose: our Fixed Cost program and our Journey Protection Guarantee program. Both options have fixed costs that do not change during your journey, so you can plan for costs with no surprises.
Even though we're a large agency, our programs are not "one size fits all". We work with all intended parents separately to understand their needs and help them find the program best suited for their journey.
Surrogacy only: $125,500
Surrogacy plus egg donation: $149,500
(both prices exclude IVF)
Our Fixed Cost Program provides intended parents the security of paying one fixed price for a single transfer journey, reducing unexpected expenses and the uncertainty of variable costs.
Surrogacy only: $135,500
Surrogacy plus egg donation: $159,500
(both prices exclude IVF)
Our Journey Protection Guarantee offers intended parents unlimited transfers for a fixed price, plus the Circle Promise: we’ll refund 100% of our agency fee plus unused third-party funds if you do not bring home a baby.
Finding your surrogate match is an exciting time in your journey to parenthood. Circle works with many surrogate mothers from Georgia, as well as most of the surrounding states. Additionally, Circle's main office is in Boston, and we have a strong representation on the east coast and in the south, making it even easier for surrogates and intended parents to connect.
How to find a surrogate mother in Georgia
The first steps in finding a surrogate mother match is to determine what you're looking for in a surrogate, your relationship with your surrogate, and what your expectations for your journey are.
Thinking about what's important to you in your gestational carrier and journey will make it easier to determine if your surrogacy agency has presented you with a good match.
The more honest you are with when thinking about what you're looking for, the better your match with be. If you choose to work with Circle Surrogacy, your Program Coordination Team will use these answers – as well as your geographic location and views on termination – in order to find you the best match.
You'll be asked to fill out an intended parent profile that not only allows us to get to know you better, but also helps your Program Coordination Team find your surrogate match.
What to share in your parent profile: your surrogacy agency is looking for information about you, your relationship (if you are coupled), your family, your hobbies, your plans for parenthood, and what brought you to surrogacy. You will also be asked to share photos of yourself, your family and your friends - and anything else that gives us a sense of who you are as a person/people.
In addition to your profile, there are certain criteria on which you will be matched with your gestational carrier.
If you are doing an independent surrogacy journey, you can use the above as guidelines as to what you should be looking for in a suitable match.
If you’re working with a surrogacy agency, your agency team will help you find a surrogate mother. They will use a few certain criteria to match you.
1. Appropriate legal fit
In the United States, each state has its own laws regarding surrogacy. Outside the U.S., each country has different requirements and laws regarding surrogacy. Circle’s experienced legal team ensures that the laws of the surrogate’s home state (where the delivery will take place) complement the laws of intended parents' home state/country (including laws around same sex parenting). Our legal team will always approve a match from a legal standpoint before a surrogate profile is presented to intended parents. We will never knowingly present matches that are not a safe legal fit.
2. Personality fit and surrogacy expectations
Once the legal team presents its list of safe matches, the Surrogate Advisors and Program Coordinators and Managers review the list together to find the best personality fits, since we want this to be a comfortable relationship throughout the entirety of the journey. Circle Surrogacy will also use the information gathered from individual phone calls or in-person meetings with both surrogates and intended parents early in process to determine good personality fits. We also look at IPs' and surrogates' expectations and hopes for the journey including the number of embryos to transfer and communication styles.
3. Expectations Surrounding Termination and Selective Reduction
As an intended parent or surrogate, you will be asked about your views on termination of a pregnancy. This is a standard question asked early in the process. Parents and surrogates must share similar views on this topic in order for a match to be considered. We want to ensure that the views of the surrogate and the views of the intended parents align in the event a situation arises where a reduction or termination is considered. In our experience, many intended parents prefer the option to make the choice of termination.
Some intended parents require an egg donor in order to grow their family. See how to go about finding your egg donor match – what qualities to look for and how to search an egg donor database. Learn about finding your egg donor match in Georgia - or any state!
How do you begin to find an egg donor who will help you grow your family? Finding the perfect egg donor can feel like an overwhelming task.
The first step to finding your perfect egg donor match is to think about the type of woman that you're looking for. Some intended parents look for a young woman who has similar qualities that they possess. Other intended parents look for an egg donor who complements their personality or appearance.
Education? Appearance? Ethnicity? Personality? As you start your search, it's a good idea to have some thoughts as to what's important to you in an egg donor match.
And remember, nature vs nurture – not every characteristic or trait is hereditary!
An egg donor database is a great first stop when you begin your egg donor search. Most Egg Donor databases are set up so that you can search for an egg donor by certain criteria. Circle's egg donor database is easy to use, and easy to navigate.
Egg donor profiles include a tremendous amount of information about each woman to help you make an informed decision.
Intended parents will also have the choice of the type of egg donation they'd like to have: Known, Semi-known or Anonymous. While it is 100% up the parents and the egg donor the type of donation they do together, Circle strongly recommends known egg donation, where all parties get to know each other
In the United States, each state has its own laws regarding surrogacy. In addition, each country we assist has different requirements and laws regarding surrogacy. Therefore, our legal team ensures that the laws of the surrogate’s home state (where the delivery will take place) complement the laws of intended parents' home state/country (including laws around same sex parenting).
Georgia is a surrogacy-friendly safe. Intended parents and surrogates can enter into surrogacy contracts with confidence.
Georgia is a very favorable state for surrogacy, despite no statutory of case law directly addressing surrogacy contracts in Georgia. Courts regularly establish parental rights for intended parents through a pre-birth declaratory judgment. The petition filed on behalf of the intended parent outlines the surrogacy arrangement, how the embryo(s) came to be created, how the transfer resulted in the pregnancy, and affirmation of the ongoing support for intended parents to be cleared of the legal parents of the expected child. The judgment declares the intended parents as the legal parents and directs for the state of Georgia to create the child’s birth certificate listing the intended parents together (or the single parent alone).
The court process is very seamless – everything is handled between counsel for the intended parents and for the gestational carrier, with no in-person hearings required for the parties, making Georgia a desirable state for surrogacy.
Circle is proud to work with women from Georgia who want to become surrogate mothers and help others achieve their dreams of parenthood. See how much surrogates make in Georgia, surrogate mother requirements and how to apply to become a surrogate.
If you live in Georgia and you're interested in becoming a surrogate, you're in great company! Circle has worked with many women from Georgia as gestational carriers. Women who apply to become surrogate mothers from Georgia are kind, generous and ready to embark on one of the most amazing journeys.
Surrogate mothers are women who have had smooth, uncomplicated pregnancies, and who enjoy being pregnant, but whose own families are complete.
They wish to help others realize the joys of parenthood.
In order to qualify to become a gestational carrier in Georgia, women must meet the following requirements:
See a full list of surrogate requirements to determine if you qualify to be a Circle surrogate!
Becoming a surrogate mother in Georgia is one of the most rewarding experiences.
Surrogate mothers receive the following surrogate pay and benefits:
How much do surrogate mothers make? The monetary benefits of becoming a surrogate mother are significant, but nothing compares to the pride a surrogate feels the moment she watches her intended parents meet their baby for the first time.
As a surrogate from Atlanta, Augusta or surrounding areas, you have the opportunity to earn between $50,000 and $60,000 in payments and benefits. Surrogate mothers are paid a base fee of between $30,000-$40,000, plus additional compensation and benefits for milestones along their journey.
In Georgia, surrogate mothers are compensated a base fee of $30,000. Surrogates are also paid for benefits on top of this base fee, including payments for a transfer, invasive procedures, bed rest, etc.
How much you will make as a surrogate will depend on a few criteria: the state you live in, if you have insurance, and if you're an experienced gestational carrier.
Calculate your surrogate pay in Georgia with our surrogate compensation calculator.
Surrogate payments are made monthly, and surrogate mothers start earning compensation and benefits even before they are pregnant.
As the world leader in this field, Circle Surrogacy brings 25 years of experience and passion to surrogacy in Georgia. Our team supports you every step of the way—from the day you begin exploring surrogacy to your meeting with the prospective parents, and throughout your entire pregnancy to birth. We’ll help you navigate the screening process, ensure you match with the perfect intended parent or parents, and guide you through the legal and social work aspects of surrogate parenting.
At Circle Surrogacy, our surrogates will find experienced surrogates on staff who can answer any questions they may have, and share their experiences. They’ve been in the applicants’ shoes, so they can talk openly and honestly about the entire process.
We can also connect you with skilled, trustworthy experts. For example, when it’s time for you to review legal contracts, we’ll recommend an attorney local to you with whom we’ve worked with previously, and who has a strong working knowledge of Assisted Reproduction Technology law. It’s just one more way we can clear the path for you and make the entire surrogacy program as seamless as possible. Read our blog post about the 10 steps to becoming to a surrogate.
When intended parents and surrogates are matched, it's a very exciting time during the journey. Parents and surrogates may feel some apprehension and nervousness, but above all, they should feel excitement at the prospect of being matched for this extraordinary experience. Many of our parents and surrogates describe this initial matching and meeting like a “first date”.
At Circle, we work hard to find the best possible match for all parties. Unlike other agencies, intended parents and surrogates may not see multiple profiles from which they can choose. Instead, matches are hand-selected based on preferences of both parties, plus additional criteria.
When gestational carriers and intended parents begin working with Circle, they are asked questions to help determine the best possible match.
Surrogate mothers will work with their Surrogate Advisor to find the best match. Surrogate matching criteria includes her preferences on:
The criteria you use to determine a good match is personal to you. Some parents look to hear why a surrogate has applied to do a surrogacy journey. Some gestational carriers like to hear intended parents' past - how they met, and why they are interested in growing their family. Other times, it's a gut feeling that it's "right". One surrogate shared with us, "When we started our video call to get to know the intended parents I connected with them instantly and just knew immediately that I wanted to help them!"
