A surrogate is a woman who bears a child for another person or multiple people. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate is inseminated with the male parent’s sperm through “intrauterine insemination” (IUI).
She then becomes pregnant and carries the child. The traditional surrogate is technically considered the baby’s biological mother as well as the birth parent because it was her egg that was fertilized by the father’s sperm, however, donor sperm can be used as well.
A gestational surrogate undergoes a technique called “in vitro fertilization” (IVF) now makes it possible to gather eggs from the mother, fertilize them with sperm from the father, and place the embryo into the uterus of a gestational surrogate. The surrogate then carries the baby until birth. She doesn’t have any genetic ties to the child because it wasn’t her egg that was used.
Now, a gestational surrogate is also still technically called the “birth mother”, however, the biological mother, is the woman whose egg was actually fertilized.
3. It’s only legal in some states.