When an individual or couple is unable to have a child on their own, they will often turn to a surrogate to carry and birth a child for them. Oftentimes, this child can actually possess genes from one or both of the intended parents, making him or her a biological part of the family.

While this may seem like a relatively new concept, in reality, the process of surrogacy goes back many hundreds or even thousands of years, with the first known case being written about in the Bible and the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah who was infertile. However, it was not until the late 1970s that surrogacy became a viable and more accepted – as well as better documented - method for childbearing.

How Modern Surrogacy Came About

The first "official" legal surrogacy agreement was enacted in the mid-1970s with the child who was referred to as Baby M. The same lawyer who brokered this agreement went on to found the Infertility Center, a company that arranges hundreds of surrogate births every year.

During that same time frame, surrogacy made the national and international news with the world's first "test tube" baby, Louise Joy Brown. Although this was not technically a surrogate mother situation, this event did pave the way for what is now known as gestational surrogacy. This practice is used today for implanting both sperm and egg in a laboratory to be later placed into the surrogate mother's uterus.

It is for this reason that even though surrogacy can be a very positive and rewarding experience for both the surrogate mother and the biological parents, it is also important for those who intend to become a surrogate to be not just physically prepared, but emotionally as well.

Not long afterward, in 1983, was the first successful pregnancy done via egg donation. In this case, a woman could give birth to a baby through the use of eggs donated by another. It was this event that later led to the first gestational surrogacy in 1985.