When the baby is born, does the surrogate breastfeed at all, or is the baby bottle fed after birth?

Learn the answer to this week's user-submitted question about surrogacy in this week's installment of Ask a Surrogacy Expert! Have a question about surrogacy that you'd like answered? Submit it at https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/ask

In this Ask a Surrogacy Expert video, Bright Futures Families co-owner Jenn explains what typically happens after birth in a surrogacy journey—whether surrogates breastfeed, pump milk, or if babies are bottle-fed right away. Every family’s plan is unique, guided by comfort, consent, communication, and thoughtful planning.

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Hey everyone, this is Jennifer White, CEO of Bright Futures Families Surrogacy, with this week's Ask Question, which is when the baby is born, is it breastfed by the gestational carrier? Is it bottle fed? What happens? So it's a great question and it really comes down to you and the match with your intended parents. Generally the answer is no, the baby is not going to be directly breastfed by the gestational carrier. But that's not even true all the time. So sometimes people have an agreement that in the hospital it's just easier to try to get colostrum that way. It is not mandatory for a gestational carrier to do that at all. It really comes down to comfort level, your relationship with your intended parents as to whether or not the baby is given breast milk or whether it's bottle fed or any of those other things. Generally it's going to be bottle fed, I mean, for the most part, unless the intended mother induced lactation. But whether it is breast milk or whether it is formula, that, that really comes down to a conversation with you as to whether you want to pump for the intended parents or whether they end up getting milk from somebody else or whether they just decide that they would rather do formula. So the thing is that a fed baby is best and that's really what matters in the end. But no, generally you're not going to be breastfeeding the baby as a gestational carrier. I hope that helps.