In surrogacy, the legal process is complex and it involves a planned pregnancy which is achieved through a series of medical procedures, as well as a legal contract that outlines each party’s roles, commitments, and responsibilities to the child.

In the adoption process, the same medical and legal procedures are not required, it doesn’t involve planned pregnancy and the legal adoption process takes place after the baby is born when the birth parents legally consent to the adoption and the adoptive parents are granted custody by the court. In surrogacy, the majority of the legal work is completed before the baby’s birth.

In the adoption process, adoptive parents have little control, depending on their relationship with the surrogate mother, they may or may not be involved in most of the pregnancy stages.

However, in surrogacy, the intended parents are involved throughout the pregnancy experience and are generally able to be present for many key milestones, from the embryo transfer to their baby’s birth.

In surrogacy, the birth mother undergoes a thorough medical screening before they can be matched to prospective intended parents. The legal contracts signed by the surrogate and intended parents often also include provisions to ensure the surrogate is receiving proper prenatal care.

In adoption, birth mother screening is often less thorough and invasive and they may or may not choose to receive prenatal care.

In adoption, the birth mother is the biological mother of her child, but that doesn’t apply to surrogacy.

The surrogacy process allows one or both intended parents to be the genetic parents of their child. Through choosing a gestational surrogacy option, the surrogate mother is not related to the child she carries. Rather, she becomes pregnant through an embryo transfer using the intended parents’ or donors’ genetic materials. If you feel strongly about maintaining a genetic link to the child, you should consider gestational surrogacy.