MEET Crystal Travis:  Determination to parent a child led Crystal Travis to familial and business success. In 2010 she launched her company, World of Surrogacy, in order to act as a guide through the complicated and sometimes frustrating process of overseas surrogacy. With World of Surrogacy, Crystal focuses on three top priorities: the health of the surrogates, parents’ trust in the clinic and the ability to complete the exit visa. Her company works with a hospital that meets European standards and Indian Council of Medical Research standards. In addition to appearing in media outlets like the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Crystal is finalizing a reality television show which will be based on her family’s tri-racial experiences.

MN:     When and why did you start the World of Surrogacy and what services does the company provide clients?

CT:     I incorporated World of Surrogacy at the end of 2010. The reason I decided to incorporate the company is that before my first child, Mark, was born in 2008, I started getting a lot of referral calls in 2007 from other couples who wanted to become parents through surrogacy. I’ve been working in the business since 2007; I simply didn’t start collecting a fee for my facilitator surrogacy services until 2010.

After awhile I realized that I was helping so many people, traveling to and from India, that I had an epiphany, and realized that I should conduct the work I was doing as a business rather than continue to do the work for free. The work had also become overwhelming as I couldn’t pay thousands of dollars in phone bills and travel without charging a fee.

What is the process for customers?

They will contact me and tell me they want to do a surrogacy through India. I charge the couple a facilitation fee then a doctor will give us a list of egg donors and surrogate mothers. I also have attorneys go back to couples who contact me for surrogacy and vet the couples to make sure they are not working with different doctors and surrogate parents. Couples are then prepped by the doctor. They may be on a 15 or 17 day protocol, a time when they receive shots and medical care the doctor deems crucial to the success of the surrogacy. After the eggs and sperm are retrieved the doctor will create the embryos.  On our end, we make sure that tests are done appropriately, that the surrogate mother and egg donors are being taken care of properly and that things are not going awry in India. We also expedite birth certificates, surrogacy agreements and the exit Visa couples need when departing India with their newborn. 

MN:     What is surrogacy?  What’s involved in becoming a surrogate mother as well as a mother adopting a child through the program?

CT:      Adoption versus surrogacy is apples and oranges.  Adoption is where you adopt a child who is not genetically related to you. With surrogacy an embryo is carried by the surrogate mother. A husband’s sperm and/or his wife’s eggs may be used to birth a child. I ask couples a battery of medical questions before I transfer them to a doctor. For example, if a woman is too old or unable to carry her own eggs, she can select an egg donor. Oftentimes, embryos are already created in the United States and then shipped to India and placed within the surrogate mother. The embryos are created by the embryologist in the lab, after which the embryo that is created by the couple is transferred into the woman who has been identified as the surrogate mother. Sperm can also be shipped to India or a man can travel to India and make a sperm deposit. The child is genetically related to the couple, not to the surrogate mother. The surrogate mother is used to carry the embryo in her womb. She simply carries the baby for the couple.

MN:     Do surrogate parents ever change their minds and decide that they want to keep their children? If so, how do you handle this type of event?

CT:       Surrogate parents in third world countries where poverty is high generally are not able to financially care for their children so they do not change their minds about giving the child up. Additionally, surrogate mothers go thru a battery of tests. If they are deemed to be someone who would have a problem releasing the child, they would not be selected to be a surrogate.