Overview

“Family formation through the process of surrogacy is a complex psychological and social process.  A surrogacy arrangement is one in which before the child is conceived, the intended parent/s and the surrogate mother and her partner if she has one, agree that the surrogate will become pregnant with the intention that the child will, at birth, be given into the care of the intended parents to raise as their own.” (ANZICA Surrogacy Guidelines 2016)

The activity will outline altruistic surrogacy treatment in Australia and detailed information on the psychological aspects, including:

• pre-conception implications and assessment counselling,

• post-birth counselling, and

• parentage order counselling.

Requirements in the different jurisdictions of Australia will be discussed, as will resources available to help those undertaking surrogacy related counselling.  

A study of the socio demographic and psychological characteristics of 160 pre-surrogacy implications and assessment counselling cases (602 people) will be reported on to enhance background knowledge; and a study of findings, from post-birth relinquishment counselling of surrogate mothers, will be presented to illustrate outcomes for women who help others to have a child.

Level of Learning

Foundational. This activity is tagerted to those new to the topic.

Duration of access

Access to this activity is for 12 months from the date of confirmed registration.

APS CPD-Approved

This activity has been assessed against the APS Standards for CPD activities and approved for its education quality.

Learn more about the APS CPD Approval process

CPD Frequently Asked Questions

Refer to the APS CPD Frequently Asked Questions for general and technical information when undertaking APS Professional development activities.

Activity details

• On-demand webinar recording

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

• acquire knowledge of altruistic surrogacy in Australia,

• outline the range of surrogacy related counselling required, and

• access resources to aid in undertaking surrogacy counselling.

Presenter(s)

Miranda Montrone MAPS

About the presenter(s)

Miranda Montrone is a health psychologist, family therapist and infertility counsellor with more than 30 years of experience working in infertility and assisted reproduction, including 10 years as an IVF clinic counsellor.  Miranda has extensive experience in counselling parties to altruistic surrogacy arrangements in Australia: before conception, during pregnancy and after a surrogacy birth. She has made submissions to and appeared before federal and state government surrogacy inquiries and has contributed to the development of surrogacy counselling guidelines. Over more than 25 years, Miranda has counselled people in more than 250 surrogacy cases:  including pre-surrogacy implications and assessment counselling, during pregnancy counselling, post surrogacy birth relinquishment counselling and parentage order report counselling.  Since 1992 she has presented at conferences and professional workshops on infertility and third-party reproduction. (See www.counsellingplace.com.au) Miranda works in private practice in Sydney but has counselled parties to surrogacy arrangements throughout Australia.