Who Actually Knows Your Surrogate?

For intended parents considering surrogacy, much of the early conversation naturally revolves around access. How many surrogate candidates are available? How quickly can a match be made? How extensive is the network? These are reasonable questions. But for families preparing to entrust someone with something as consequential as carrying their child, IMA ART believes there is another question that deserves to be asked first: Who actually knows your surrogate?

Not who has her profile. Not only who has reviewed her obstetric records. Not simply who has confirmed that she satisfies established medical and psychological requirements.

Who has actually spoken with her, listened to her, observed her and formed an independent human judgment about the woman behind the profile? At IMA ART Fertility, this distinction sits at the heart of surrogate selection.

A Surrogate Is Far More Than a Profile

Surrogate screening is necessarily rigorous. Medical history, previous pregnancies, psychological evaluation, lifestyle, family circumstances and numerous other factors must be considered before a woman may proceed.

These safeguards matter enormously. They establish whether a candidate meets the medical and psychological requirements necessary to move forward. Qualification is where surrogate selection begins—not where it ends.

A profile can tell intended parents a great deal. It cannot fully convey how someone communicates, how thoughtful she is when answering difficult questions, whether her motivations feel consistent with what has been written about her, how she responds to uncertainty or whether a genuine sense of mutual confidence begins to develop.

These qualities are difficult to reduce to a checklist.

They become apparent through human interaction. 

Knowing the Woman Who May Carry Your Child

IMA ART was deliberately built around a different level of involvement.

Surrogate candidates are personally interviewed by IMA ART’s Principals, Michelle Tang and Ron Sonnenberg. Conversations take place directly, including by FaceTime, allowing the people ultimately responsible to the Private Client to begin getting to know the woman themselves.

This is not a substitute for independent medical or psychological screening. Nor should it ever be. IMA ART’s Principal-led and involved interview process is an additional layer of judgment.

For IMA ART, there is an important difference between being told that a surrogate has been vetted and developing firsthand knowledge of the person being considered.

That distinction becomes especially important when serving Private Clients who expect a highly considered approach to decisions of consequence.

We do not believe a surrogate should simply be a profile. We believe you should know the woman who may carry your child—and so should we.

From Selection to Stewardship

That involvement does not end when a match is made.

IMA ART's Principals personally attend each surrogate's medical screening, mock cycle and embryo transfer. The relationship therefore develops across time and through real experiences rather than ending with an introduction. This continuity serves another purpose.

It allows the people overseeing the journey to remain close to what is actually happening.

They see how the surrogate communicates. They understand the process she has experienced. They are present for important medical milestones. And when questions or complications arise, they are not attempting to manage a relationship from a distance with someone they scarcely know.

This is the difference between access and stewardship. Access can introduce intended parents to a surrogate.

Stewardship means remaining personally accountable for the journey that follows.

Bespoke Does Not Mean Slow

There is sometimes an assumption that a highly selective, personalized surrogate search must necessarily take considerably longer. That has not been IMA ART's recent experience.

Despite conducting a considerably more personal, selective and principal-led process, IMA ART's recent matching experience has been measured in weeks rather than months, with a number of searches resulting in matches within approximately two to six weeks.

Every search is different, however, and no responsible fertility advisor should guarantee how quickly the right surrogate will be found.

The objective should never be speed for its own sake.

The objective is to identify the right woman for the right family—and to do so without compromising the standards applied to that decision.

Access Is Not Enough

The fertility industry increasingly offers intended parents access: access to clinics, physicians, donors, surrogates and increasingly large networks of potential candidates. IMA ART acknowledges access has value.

But for Private Clients undertaking surrogacy, access alone is not the same as personal-engagement by the principals, judgment or responsibility.

IMA ART believes the more meaningful question is not simply how many surrogate candidates an organization can reach.

It is whether the people advising the family are consistently close enough to the process—and to the surrogate herself—to exercise informed judgment throughout the journey.

That philosophy requires time. It requires personal involvement. And by its nature, it limits scale. IMA ART considers that a strength.

Because when a woman may carry your child, knowing her should never be considered an operational detail. It is part of IMA ART’s Fertility Stewardship.