Guest Blogger: Angela Richardson-Mook, Founder & Managing Director, Alcea Surrogacy
Angela is a six-time gestational carrier, egg donor, and mother via IVF, bringing deep personal insight and unwavering compassion to her role. As an adoptee herself, she founded Alcea Surrogacy to prioritize transparency, ethics, and heartfelt support for all families, regardless of race, orientation, or path to parenthood. Angela has dedicated her career to normalizing third-party reproduction and empowering individuals through their journeys. For her, the most meaningful moments are when intended parents hold their babies for the first time and know how supported they’ve been along the way. Outside of her executive role, Angela continues to champion educational and inclusive narratives around family building, inviting everyone to see the many beautiful ways families come into being.
Surrogacy can be a polarizing topic, either heralded as a beautiful journey to parenthood focusing on Intended Parents who utilize surrogacy to complete their families, or condemned by others as the exploitation of women’s bodies, and discussed without the necessary nuance of ethics, regulation and bodily autonomy that inform both sides. Regardless of this polarization in public discourse, the surrogacy and third party reproduction industry is experiencing rapid growth and expected to continue to grow exponentially.
More families than ever are turning to surrogacy as part of their path to family building, and more women are stepping forward as gestational carriers to help make those dreams possible. It is imperative that we bring conversations around ethics, transparency, and community to the forefront now.
As third-party reproduction industry professionals- and as a society as a whole-we must all be concerned with protecting both the women who are contributing in this most meaningful way to make others’ dreams come true and the parents-to-be who are investing seemingly endless emotional and financial capital in these journeys. It is our responsibility to guide these conversations in a nuanced, respectful and proactive way. It is also our obligation to ensure that there are ethics-first, comprehensive regulatory framework and best practices clearly defined for every step. Finally, it is our moral obligation to safeguard the people whose bodies, hearts and minds are on the line in this uniquely vulnerable journey, see that they are holistically supported by relationships steeped in transparency, and have strong, well informed, compassionate community readily available to them.
I’ve had the privilege of working with surrogates, intended parents, attorneys, and clinics across the country, and one truth consistently emerges: the surrogacy journey is about much more than contracts and medical procedures. It is about trust. Every match begins with strangers coming together to create and nurture life in a partnership where the intimacy required belies the very nature of the new relationship. It is our role as professionals to shepherd that process with clarity, fairness, and compassion.
At its core, surrogacy is an act of profound generosity. A woman carries a child not for herself, but for someone else’s family. The intended parents entrust a relative stranger with the most important journey they will ever undertake. In a process with such inherent intimacy and vulnerability, ethical practices cannot be an afterthought—they must be the foundation.
This means respecting the autonomy of surrogates, ensuring they are fully informed and supported, and free of coercion. It also means setting realistic expectations for intended parents, guiding them through the highs and lows with honesty and empathy rather than overpromising outcomes.
Unfortunately, in an unregulated industry, not all practices or practitioners are equal. We’ve all heard stories of rushed matches, unclear fee structures, or poor communication. These moments erode trust and harm everyone involved. Upholding high ethical standards—whether or not regulations require it—is the responsibility of every agency and professional in this space.
Transparency is how we transform ethics into action. From financial structures to timelines, families and surrogates deserve clarity. For example, escrow management should always be handled by licensed, independent professionals. This protects surrogates by ensuring their compensation is secure and gives intended parents peace of mind that funds are managed responsibly.
Transparency also extends to communication. Surrogates need to know exactly what medical, emotional, and logistical support is available to them. Intended parents should understand both the joys and potential challenges of the process. Even small details—such as what happens if a match doesn’t move forward, or how rematches are handled—make a world of difference in building trust.
I often remind my team that a lack of transparency doesn’t just confuse people—it creates unnecessary anxiety. When people feel informed, they feel empowered. And empowerment is essential in a journey where so much feels outside of one’s control.
One of the most overlooked but powerful aspects of surrogacy is the sense of community it creates. Surrogates often form bonds not only with intended parents, but also with other surrogates. Intended parents, too, find comfort in knowing they are not alone in the often isolating and dark path of infertility or elongated and bumpy road to parenthood, nor are they alone in their uniquely bittersweet joys.
Community also helps address one of the most complex aspects of surrogacy: navigating the emotional landscape. For example, for surrogates, explaining their role to children, family, or friends can be challenging and they can share in the knowledge and experience of other surrogates in shared online spaces, support groups and increasingly, across social media. For intended parents, coping with uncertainty, the lack of faith in success, oftentimes previous losses adds weight to the journey of pregnancy- they find a unique bond in shared IP spaces where they can get support on everything from what to wear for skin to skin in a shared space and without being the birthing person, to how people handled announcing to friends and family, baby showers and unexpected setbacks and complicated milestones along their journey. When people feel surrounded by others who understand, the journey becomes less isolating and more empowering.
Through my own experience, both as an experienced surrogate and as the CEO and founder of a modern, ethics-first surrogacy agency, I’ve learned a few key lessons:
• Surrogates are resilient but not invincible. They need ongoing care, respect, and recognition for the life-changing role they play, and access to ongoing support of their agency team (family) and licensed professionals as needed.
• Intended parents crave transparency. They would rather hear a hard truth upfront than face unexpected setbacks or costs later.
• Communication solves more problems than it creates. Even difficult conversations can strengthen relationships when handled with honesty, integrity and empathy.
• The journey doesn’t end at birth. Continued support for surrogates and families after delivery helps everyone transition with gratitude and closure.
As surrogacy continues to grow, we must resist the temptation to let speed or scale outpace integrity. Every decision—whether in how we structure fees, match families, or support surrogates—should be guided by the principles of ethics, transparency, and community.
The future of surrogacy isn’t just about helping more families have children. It’s about creating an industry that people can trust, one that reflects the generosity, hope, and courage at the heart of every journey- and the need for informed consent, bodily autonomy, respect and comprehensive protections that everyone deserves. When we commit to these values, we don’t just build families—we build a stronger, safer and more compassionate community for everyone involved.
Learn more about Angela and Alcea Surrogacy at www.alceasurrogacy.com
Alcea Surrogacy is a modern, ethics-first agency dedicated to building families through trust, transparency, and compassion. The agency was created to elevate the surrogacy experience for both intended parents and gestational carriers by prioritizing clarity, respect, and emotional support. At Alcea, surrogacy is viewed as a deeply human journey rooted in connection and integrity rather than simply a medical or legal process. Serving families nationwide, Alcea champions inclusivity and representation across all identities and family types. Its diverse team of professionals and lived-experience advocates works to make surrogacy safer, more equitable, and deeply supported from the first conversation through post-birth care. Guided by a commitment to ethics, education, and community, Alcea continues to set a higher standard for transparency and compassion in third-party reproduction.