Let’s put it out there, I’m going to be a surrogate. The road to this decision was not an easy one. There was lots of going back and forth, both with myself and my husband (who is awesome) as well as a ton of research including such questions as:

How do I become a surrogate? How do I pick the intended parents? Do they pick me? Is it a combo of both? What’s the infield fly rule?

Like I said, lots of important questions. This is the road that I’ve taken (so far) to become a surrogate. It’s not so much a straight road like “I’m-running-down-the-block-to-hit-the-red-box” kind of road, but more of the “let’s-drive-half-way-across-the-country-without-knowing-where-we’re-going” kind of road. It’s going to take some time, so please bear with me.

A little back ground info on me before we get too far ahead of ourselves.

My name is Lauren Silk. I’m married to a totally awesome guy with whom we have two totally awesome kiddos. I’m also co-owner Colorado Mountain Doulas, a doula agency based here in Colorado Springs. My first child birthing experience was in a hospital and, for me, wasn’t that great. My second was at Mountain Midwifery Birth Center, and was, again for me, amazing. It was during my second pregnancy that I started to become interested in becoming a doula. This was to become a major moment for me as it then lead me to not only become a doula, but start my own company.

It was after a prenatal visit with one of our clients, that I mentioned to my business partner that I was interested in becoming a surrogate. An oven for someone else’s bun, as it were. This was the first time that I’d ever said this out loud to anybody. Not too long after that I worked up the courage to tell my husband.

Now, I don’t know what I was expecting when I told him, but I don’t think I was expecting him to be as cool with it as he was. I thought that there was going to be a big debate about it. There wasn’t. And while we did have conversations about what was going to happen later, the big debate I was expecting just never happened. Here’s what did:

Once I decided that I wanted to be a surrogate and told my husband, the next step was finding out HOW to become one. I was pretty sure that the local Chase branch didn’t do those kind of “deposits”. I did some research, and by research I mean I Googled “Surrogacy Agencies in Colorado”. I found one that I thought would work, but in the end, it didn’t work out. After that, becoming a surrogate kind of took a back seat to life for a little while; but not for long.

Only a few months later I was contacted by a private party as well as a nice lady named Darci from Silver Linings, an agency that finds surrogates for intended parents. After talking it over with my husband, I decided to go with the agency, mainly because they would take care of most of the work involved.

After getting contacted about becoming a surrogate, the next step in the process was sending off my medical records to make sure that there hadn’t been any previous complications with my births. Check, check, check, and then not even 24 hours later, I was notified that there might be a match for me with a nice couple from the East Coast.

Next I’d meet the intended parents, for whom I’d be carrying their baby. Whoa that happened fast! Stay tuned I’ll tell ya all about it. ~Lauren

Jenn

A passion for helping families to make educated decisions about their families and their birth choices has lead Jenn to become a great source of information for many across the country. She has been educating families on their choices and guiding them to find their own voice in maternity care since 2002.

Jenn is a certified Labor Doula, beginning her studies with CAPPA, taking many additional trainings along the way and is recertifying with ProDoula in 2015. She is also a trained childbirth educator and Postpartum Doula teaching childbirth preparation classes, and also creating her own curriculum for a pre and early pregnancy workshop focused on families who are just beginning to plan for a family, into the 2nd trimester.

Today Jenn is the Co-owner of Colorado Mountain Doulas LLC, providing the community with much needed education, local resources, sibling, postpartum, and labor Doula services.

When she is not guiding families through their birthing year, Jenn is living in Black Forest, CO with her husband and two children on their hobby farm.