My name is Britney Herringhsaw. I’m a 32 year old mum first, wife second and I have longed for this very opportunity to help another family bring life into theirs. I was born in the UK and lived in Florida for many years. Many of those years, Surrogacy has been on my mind. After moving to Upstate New York 3 years ago and learning that Surrogacy was a tough possibility here, I never thought for a second that the process in becoming a Surrogate would be this indescribable. You see, before NYSC and also before Covid showed its face, I actually stumbled across an agency in NJ. They had a long drawn out application that quickly connected me to an Intended Parent Coordinator that sounded as though I had just caught her at the end of her shift. I was excited and nervous. Even though this was my first time physically speaking with an agency and showing interest to move forward, their lack of empathy caused me to quickly detest the process.
At this point I was already in several Surrogacy Groups on social media, which by the way.. if you’re not in any. Get yourself in them. They save lives. I stumbled across a few posts regarding New York agencies and it quickly lead me right into Portia’s DM. She is NYSC’s Surrogacy Outreach Coordinator and has been a tremendous help from the start. It was late July, July 19th to be exact when she explained a little about New York Surrogacy Center. What stood out most to me was the fact that NYSC is owned and run by attorneys who have helped shape the laws in NY. That beat everything. I know other states were having an extremely hard time getting licensed and I felt a huge wave of relief and certainty moving forward with NYSC.
After the intake form was submitted with my contact information, I received an email from NYSC’s Director, Joe, with a request to schedule a chat via call or zoom. I love seeing people, so zoom it was. Joe is amazing. A true legend honestly. I love that he was able to answer all of my questions and even some inside thoughts that I didn’t voice. I submitted my application July 23rd. The application was pretty lengthy, asked about my education, employment history, family background, marriage etc. Once that was reviewed by them, they reached out and said that I was ready to get started with the “pre-screening” phase of my journey.
Pre-Screening is no joke but I absolutely LOVED it. I’m not sure why, but everything about this phase was so unreal and exciting all at once. I felt like a little kid all giddy on the first day of school. I think it’s extremely important to note how thorough NYSC is when it comes to Surrogacy. Not all agencies are created equal. Trust me. If I were the Intended Parents, I would fully expect, respect and APPRECIATE this process more than anything. There are a total of 15 steps in the pre-screening process, here are just a few fun ones required;
Fingerprinting/background check. If going in for a full FBI fingerprinting report doesn’t make you feel like inspector gadgets side kick, well, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m obviously no criminal so maybe that’s why it was so fun lol. But yes please. Background checks are important.
Drug Screening – the clipping of the hair follicle was a first for me. I’m thankful it was done by a professional and she did a marvelous job cutting a nice chunk from the back of my head that hasn’t been noticeable since. Who knew that a drug test this way would show the last 90 days of drug use. Impressive.
STD Screening – awkward, but only if you make it haha.
DMV Abstract – I thought it was strange at first but then I put myself back in the Intended Parents shoes. Of course I want to see how safe of a driver you are. You are carrying my child! So here.. Take all the documentation you need. I don’t drive it like I stole it.
Medical Records with a clearance letter from my primary doctor to give me the green light on going through another pregnancy. This will be my fourth in case you were wondering, and I’m happy to share that I have completed my family.
Some of these things were the highlight of my week, so getting them scheduled and completed didn’t take me much time. Once I wrapped up with pre-screening, Joe made one heck of a profile for me and I signed a contract with the BEST agency I could ever ask for.
Cheers… to my happy beginning.
