Surrogacy is truly an amazing journey! The success of that journey, and the joy and satisfaction felt along the way, has everything to do with the people involved. It also has a lot to do with understanding and feeling comfortable with all of the steps along the way. Like most women thinking about being a surrogate, you probably have a lot of questions about what the steps are. Here are nine of the most significant steps you will take on your journey.

The Surrogate Screening Process

The first step in becoming a surrogate is to submit the initial paperwork and schedule a call with our program co-director. She will also review your paperwork, get to know you, and coordinate getting the additional paperwork we will need from you. This includes:

• An application and family medical history
• Prenatal/labor and delivery records
• Recent pap report
• Copies of your ID, insurance information, etc.
• Photos you’d like to share with potential intended parents

After all your paperwork is in, we will schedule a time for you to come to our office to meet with us. Plan to bring your spouse or partner or any other support person who will be with you through this process. We will then arrange for you to consult with a psychologist who specializes in surrogacy. She or he will talk with you about the emotional aspects of being a surrogate and what to expect. The psychologist can help you come up with ideas for how to talk with family and friends about your journey. Once this step is complete, it’s time to introduce you to intended parents!

Meeting the Intended Parents

We work very hard to make the best match possible between our surrogates and intended parents. We consider what you are looking for in intended parents and what our intended parents are looking for in a surrogate. We also look at personality types, interests, and where each of you lives.

We will share with you some information about their backgrounds. We will tell you their stories and why they have chosen surrogacy to build their family. You’ll also get to see photos. Once we have found a match, we’ll arrange for you all to meet. The actual meeting will be in a casual setting, usually at a restaurant, and at a time that’s convenient for you. Rest assured, you will always have the final say in which intended parents you work with!

Medical Screening

We will send your information and medical records to the intended parents’ doctor so they can be reviewed. The clinic will call you to schedule a time for your medical screening. The date of this appointment will be based on your menstrual cycle and will involve:

• A basic physical
• High-level ultrasound to check the lining of your uterus
• Lab work for you and your spouse or partner
• Consultation with the doctor. You will learn more about how IVF works and the risks associated with IVF and pregnancy. This is also the time to discuss your questions or concerns about the medical aspect of the surrogacy journey.

After the test results all come back favorable, the doctor will let us and the intended parents know that you have been medically approved to be a surrogate! This is called “medical clearance.” Once you are medically cleared, we move can begin working on the gestational carrier contract.

The Gestational Carrier Contract

In this step four, you will enter into a contract with the intended parents. We will arrange for you to have your own attorney during this process. It will be someone who doesn’t work in our office and who represents only you! Your attorney will review this contract with you to make sure you clearly understand everything. Your attorney will answer all of your questions and concerns and will request, on your behalf, any changes to the contract if appropriate. Your attorney’s fees are paid for by the intended parents, so there is no cost to you for your legal services.

IVF Cycle to Achieve Pregnancy

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a very specialized and detailed process that requires you to adhere to a strict calendar of hormone medications, medical appointments, blood work, and ultrasounds. Each fertility center doctor has their own protocol, and it’s critical that you follow the doctor’s instructions exactly as they are given. Many surrogates become pregnant after just one transfer!

Pregnancy Test and Ultrasound

Roughly ten days after the transfer, you will go to a lab for a pregnancy blood test. You can expect a follow up test two days later as well. If those results are positive, you will go back to the fertility center for a heartbeat ultrasound to determine if you have a viable pregnancy. This usually happens about four weeks after the embryo transfer. At that point, the fertility center doctor will release you to your own OBGYN for the rest of your pregnancy, labor and delivery.

Visits to your OBGYN

From this point on, you will be seeing your OBGYN for regular visits. Hopefully it will be an easy, uneventful pregnancy just like your others. Your intended parents will want to attend as many OBGYN visits as possible. They can then ask your doctor questions about their baby and make informed decisions about any prenatal testing your doctor recommends. This is a really good time to build your relationship with your intended parents. Allowing them to experience the pregnancy through you is what makes your surrogacy journey so rewarding!

Delivery and Welcoming the Baby!

The grand finale speaks for itself. This is what the journey has been all about. No matter how the baby decides to enter the world, taking you by surprise when your water breaks or going as planned with an induction or cesarean section, this day will be like no other! You will always remember the look on your intended parents’ faces the first time they hold their long-awaited, precious child. At this moment, you become part of an exclusive club of selfless women–willing to give so much of themselves in order to bless someone else with a family.

We hope this step by step explanation has inspired you to learn more about the surrogacy journey! If you’re ready to get started, you can apply today by clicking this link.

Adopting Parents

If you want to adopt a baby, a relative, a stepchild, or an adult, Family Formation attorneys are experts at determining the most seamless and cost effective way to process your adoption, always with an eye to precluding legal issues.

Assisted Reproduction Contracts

Family Formation has helped build families and fulfill dreams of family through assisted reproductive technologies and surrogacy for nearly thirty years. We draft and review all types of contracts–gestational surrogacy, ovum donation, sperm donation. We have obtained parental adjudication orders in virtually every county in Northern California.

Intended Parents

Family Formation is truly unique in the surrogacy industry. Our surrogacy program is one of the only programs in the country that is licensed and regulated. Our comprehensive surrogacy program begins with your dream of family and ends with the birth of your child.

4K Everything

Predict the future is a pastime as old as human mentality, and atop the. Else, there are certain types of prognostication we're more comfortable with han others. Predicting futurity tech is one of such.

Science invention gives us a glimpse at ome possible futures, but the most reliable way to know what'scoming is to oversee at what's happening here. Sales figures, development trends, and client responsiveness give the most holistic examination of whereat we're motion.

With that in intelligence, here's a watch at five arising technologies that will be everywhere you watch by 2020.

We're not just impressive about TechnoVolume: Broadcasting station, streaming media, and film will all follow to 4K norm by 2020. Or, at least a new survey of media manager by satellite user Intelsat foretold. Nearly two-thirds of respondents maintain 4k is available now.

Right now, it's tough to detect native 4K content to watch on a 4K display. That's because breeder and content providers—ever watchful of piracy—are busily preparing standards for hardware-based content defense. This translates to high expenses and lots of upgrades, at least forward, but as adoption becomes widespread prices will onset fall.

UHD will first become generic on OTT services such as Hulu, HBO and Netflix, maintained by hardware fabricatorsuch as Roku, Apple, Samsung and Sony. Ultimately, the high-res video will find its way to services like IPTV and cable.

Truly Global Internet

If you’re going to declare the internet a fundamental human right (as many countries are starting to do), then you need to broaden and diversify the ways people can access it. Currently there are simply two methods (broadband and wireless), both of which limit access to rural, remote, or impoverished areas because of their intensive infrastructural demands.

Sounds such as the stuff of science fiction, but it’s not. Google believes it can deliver 3G-speed wireless internet to the remotest regions on the planet with its Project Loon. How? By launching high-altitude balloons 20 miles into the atmosphere and establishing aerial wireless networks. The company is also planning to launch a fleet of 180 satellites that will orbit the globe and broadcast internet to developing countries. Elon Musk's SpaceX is working on a similar plan.

Even more outlandish (and perhaps a bit more than five years away) is Facebook's plan to deploy solar-powered drones that will fly uninterrupted around the globe for months or even years, showering the earth with internet access.

Just Over the Horizon

Self-Driving Cars: Tesla's new autopilot function is brilliant, and we hope it works as advertised, but there's no way it's going to be mainstream by 2020. We're willing to believe, however, that self-driving vehicles will be at least as joint as motorcycles by 2025. Just imagine Uber deploying its own fleet of autonomous vehicles. Game over.

Wearable Everything: You might love your Fitbit or Pebble Steel. You might even own a pair of Google Glass. But wearables have a long way to go before they become a mainstream phenomenon. Unlike other categories, which face huge technological hurdles, wearable tech faces a cultural barrier: A smartwatch or self-driving car is one thing, but a computer you wear on your face is something else entirely.

A Better Battery: Lithium-ion has served us well, but we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of efficiency. We need a new battery or power cell to power more than just cameras and phones. Beyond the obvious demands created by resource scarcity, rising populations, and the growing popularity of electric vehicles, the expansion of the Internet of Things is going to create a massive need for energy-dense power hubs. Luckily, researchers already have some smart ideas.

An Overview of Yoga

In the past 60 years, yoga has gone from a little-known, esoteric Indian practice to a central activity of the cultural mainstream. But while it is commonly available in cities throughout the world and almost everyone has heard of it, yoga still remains something of a mystery to people who have never tried it. That's because it resists an easy definition.

Yoga is a diverse and diffuse practice with numerous threads that can be interwoven in many ways.

Complicating matters further, the term yoga has been in use for several thousands of years and has shifted meanings many times. To start to unpack what contemporary yoga is, let's take a look at yoga's evolution and how it is practiced today.

Defining Yoga

The word yoga comes from Sanskrit—an ancient Indian language. It is a derivation of the word yuj, which means to yoke, as in harnessing together a team of oxen.

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Today, it is often interpreted to mean union. Yoga is said to be for the purpose of uniting the mind, body, and spirit.

Most modern yoga practices rely heavily on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a series of aphorisms written c. 250 CE, as the basis for their philosophies. The Yoga Sutras specify eight "limbs" of yoga. The three most commonly practiced limbs are pranayama (breathing exercises), meditation, and asana. Asana is what most of us have come to know simply as yoga, the physical poses.

So what should you expect when you head to a yoga class? While meditation and breathing exercises may be included, asana has assumed a primary role in most types of contemporary practice.

Some classes may also include chanting or an inspirational reading, depending on the individual teacher and the yoga style.

Generally, yoga classes at a gym or health club will focus primarily on the physical aspects of the practice, while people who want a more spiritual approach are more likely to find it at specialized studios.

Types of Yoga

The origins of today's most popular types of yoga can be traced back to one man, T. Krishnamacharya. Through his three most prominent students, yoga, as we know it, was disseminated to the west:

• From Pattabhi Jois, we got Ashtanga Yoga—which is responsible for the vinyasa flow style that is now so prevalent—as well as the method of working on the same exact series of poses repeatedly over time.
• From B.K.S. Iyengar, we got the concept of alignment—meaning that there is an ideal way of doing each pose—and the introduction of the now-standard props to help us safely reach this ideal.
• From Krishnamacharya's son, T.K.V. Desikachar, we got the idea that when yoga is individualized to each person's needs and abilities, it can be curative, which has, in turn, led to the emergence of yoga therapy as a form of alternative medicine.

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With so many types of yoga, it can be daunting to pick the right one. This cheat sheet covers 20 popular styles (including Bikram/hot yoga, power yoga, and Kundalini) to help you narrow down the field. But there is usually a bit of trial and error involved too. You may find the best yoga class on the first try, but you may also need to shop around and try different things until you find the one that feels right.

Yoga Poses

Many people think that yoga is just stretching. But while stretching is certainly involved, yoga is really about creating balance in the body through developing both strength and flexibility. This is done through the performance of postures, each of which has specific physical benefits.

The poses can be done quickly in succession, creating heat in the body through movement (vinyasa-style yoga) or more slowly to increase stamina and perfect the alignment of each pose. They can be done in a hot room, on a rooftop, in a gym, or even on a paddle board.

Also, poses are a constant—linking together the disparate branches of the yoga family tree.

The amazing thing about yoga is that although the poses themselves do not change, your relationship to them will. Your practice is always evolving, so it never gets boring.

Poses fall under broad headings, although there is plenty of overlap:

• Standing poses take up the bulk of the time in most yoga sessions. They strengthen your legs and the core, particularly when balance is incorporated.
• Seated poses are used to stretch your muscles more deeply.
• Both standing and seated postures may include forward bending, twisting, hamstring stretching, and hip opening.
• Once the body is warmed up, backbends are often taught to improve spinal mobility.
• More advanced students hone their balance with inversions and arm balances.
• Every class ends with five or 10 minutes of complete relaxation.

Health Benefits

Doing yoga is good for your health in innumerable ways. Many of them are connected to yoga's proven ability to reduce stress. So many ailments are caused or exacerbated by stress: heart disease, insomnia, headaches, depression, diabetes, IBS, infertility—the list goes on.

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And this is before we even consider the physical benefits of greater strength (core strength in particular), flexibility, and balance.

Yoga also fosters mental calmness, clarity, and self-acceptance, giving you the tools to combat anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. Is there anything yoga can't do? Well, it won't increase your height, but it can improve your posture so you stand taller.

Who Can Do Yoga?

Forget any stereotype you might have in your head of what a "yoga person" looks like because anyone can do yoga. That includes men, seniors, children, pregnant women, people with bigger bodies, people with arthritis, and so on. If you have a body, you can do yoga.

If you are not at all flexible that doesn't mean you can't do yoga. It means you can and you should. Yoga is not a sport that you need to have trained for since childhood. It's not a competition where the bendiest person gets a prize. It's not even something you can be "good at" or "bad at" because there is no final goal to achieve, nothing to accomplish.

The people on the covers of yoga magazines and the most famous teachers are not any better at yoga than the rest of us. One of the most difficult, but ultimately most liberating things about yoga is letting go of the ego and accepting that no one is better than anyone else. Everyone is just doing their best on any given day.

Getting Started

So now that we've taken the veil off a bit and convinced you that you can do yoga, how do you follow through and actually get started? The easiest thing you can do is find a class nearby and go to it. It needs to be convenient to your home or work so that getting there is not a chore. And it should be a class for beginners.

Once you get your butt on a mat in a classroom, the yoga becomes inevitable. Though it is possible to do yoga at home (and many people do) it's not an ideal way to start. Taking classes with an experienced teacher gets you going on the right foot so that you begin to understand the fundamentals of alignment and avoid injury.

Eventually, you may find that yoga at home is more convenient and affordable. There are lots of great ways to practice at home once you feel ready.

A Word From Verywell

If you're still nervous, remember that everyone who does yoga was once a beginner. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll discover its wonderful benefits, chief among which is that doing yoga makes you feel amazing. Yoga is a lifelong practice that will help you stay healthy for years to come.

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