Surrogacy Australia Advice: How to Tell if Your Advice Is Reliable
If you are interested in researching surrogacy, it’s important to seek out credible sources of information.
Surrogacy is a process involving counselling and legal requirements and medical processes. The legal process includes the post-birth parentage order, which is a court process that relies on the pre-surrogacy requirements being met.
Intended parents and potential surrogates may find information on social media, online forums, and webinars. Some content found online might seem credible but is inaccurate. While lived experience can provide valuable support, it is not a substitute for qualified legal, psychological, and medical advice.
When searching for surrogacy Australia advice, it is important to consider whether the source is a qualified legal, psychological, or medical professional, whether the information is evidence-based and consistent with current legislation, and whether the person is accountable to a recognised professional body.
Each professional plays a role: lawyers provide legal advice, psychologists assess emotional readiness and wellbeing, and medical practitioners provide medical advice. Community organisations should not replace professional advice.
There are serious consequences of misinformation, including impacting the legal process and the parentage order. I have had undo and clean-up the mess created by people giving advice that are not qualified practitioners.
Qualified professional expertise is essential in any surrogacy journey in Australia. We have a group of qualified professionals over at the Association of Fertility and Surrogacy Professionals that do just that.
Hi! I’m Sarah Jefford (she/her). I’m a family creation lawyer, practising in surrogacy and donor conception arrangements across Australia.
I’m an IVF mum, an egg donor and a traditional surrogate, and I delivered a baby for two dads in 2018.
