Episode 118 – What is SASS?

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you

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SASS stands for Surrogacy Australia’s Support Service and it’s a nationally run service. Since 2019, we are the first agency for surrogacy in Australia. It’s open to intended parents, we abbreviate that to IPs, and surrogates who are looking to be introduced or matched with each other, and those teams who are self-matched, meaning they either knew each other before surrogacy or have met through online communities and are looking for support on their journey. What percentage of surrogacy teams know each other before surrogacy?

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I’ve gathered some data on this and it’s about 75 to 80%. So let’s say three out of four surrogacy arrangements know each other beforehand. And how many surrogate births are there in Australia each year? Around 130 to 150. Mind you, there is no national database on that. Back to SASS though, there are two stages and they’re both open to new and pre-existing teams. Stage one is essentially about education and mentoring. In our portal, our intranet,

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We have resources available to help you navigate the early stages of your journey. Those resources are grouped into the different stages of a journey, so it’s not so overwhelming at the beginning. For example, a section on finding a surrogate and the next one on building a surrogate. Surrogate is a word created by a surrogate, which is the stage of building that friendship where the focus is surrogacy. Some background information about SASS. We modeled ourselves off an agency in the UK called Surrogacy UK.

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They shared their resources with us, as well as video conferences as we were starting up. The UK also has an altruistic model for surrogacy, just like us in Australia, and we aligned ourselves with their friendship first model. In stage one of SASS, there are medical and police checks. IPs, surrogates, and the partners of surrogates will do police checks for the peace of mind for all parties. The medical checks for IPs, for the gay guys, it’s a simple chat with your GP.

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and there’s a form on our website for people to download and take with them to their appointment. For the hetero women, it would be a confirmation from a specialist, often from your IVF clinic, that you are unable to carry a pregnancy. For surrogates, the medical check is a chat with your GP, again with a form on our website to download, and it’s to confirm that they’re healthy enough for another pregnancy. In stage one of SASS, you’re part of our mentoring program, like a buddy program. It is one of the best elements of SASS in my opinion.

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and part of the model from Surrogacy UK. I have mentors in every state, gay dads, mums and surrogates. It’s a chance to meet with someone one-on-one to ask your questions in person from someone who has done the journey that you’re hoping to do. Both surrogates and IPs who are looking to be introduced to each other create a profile at stage one.

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There’s an expectations profile created from your application form and a written profile where you can include photos. When a surrogate is ready to be introduced to IPs, she looks at the profiles of IPs who are in the waiting pool. The IPs she chooses also get a chance to look at her profile before we move to the introduction. Introductions themselves are free, as is every stage of SASS for surrogates. The payments for stage one and two are for the support that we offer through SASS. Stage two of SASS we call Journey Support.

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The SASS team and I are with you for your whole journey as you navigate building the surrogacy, counseling, legals, engaging with the IVF clinic, pregnancy attempts, and then through the whole pregnancy, planning for birth, navigating those first few months post-birth, and until 12 months post-birth. We’re the third party that can check in with you and people to guide you who have done surrogacy before. We like to think we have the recipe for how to navigate surrogacy and have a great journey.

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and so that you’re all still friends at the end of it too. Part of stage two includes some prepaid counseling. This means once you’re pregnant, all team members, but especially the surrogate, is able to access counseling without having to ask or pay for it. This is a gift to the surrogate in many ways, as it takes away the mental load. We’re already aware of how much surrogacy costs our IPs, and we hate adding on an extra expense. But being a SASS team, she can access that counseling until 12 months post-birth.

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I talk to the IPs when we need to do a top up for the counseling amount so the surrogate doesn’t have to have that uncomfortable conversation about money. We have a recorded webinar to take you through the whole SASS process if you’d like to hear about this in much more detail. I’ll put a link in the show notes or you can find that on our website when you read up about joining SASS or Google it by its title which is Let’s Talk About SASS. There’s also a flow chart which explains stage one and two in much more detail. In case you’re not aware of who I am,

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I’m Anna McKie and I birthed as a surrogate in 2020 for dads who were previously strangers. I’m a high school maths teacher as my other job, so I feel as though I’m an educator in my life for maths and surrogacy. So to summarise, if you’re looking for more guidance on how to navigate surrogacy in Australia, please check out SASS so you can have me as your navigation tool on this journey. SASS is an option for those IPs and surrogates looking to meet each other and also for those teams who are self-matched.

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You might think of me as your Siri for surrogacy or as some community members have named me the Chat GPT. If you are finding these discussions useful, I would love it if you could leave a review wherever you listen to the show and you can find more information at surrogacyaustralia.org. Until next time, welcome to the village.