Surrogacy is Personal to Our Founder, Carey

by Surrogacy Mentor

You may be wondering how we ended up here in the Surrogacy Mentoring world? Let us start with a little background on our wonderful Surrogacy Mentor founder, Carey Flamer-Powell.

Carey’s passion for helping others grow their families started when she decided to grow her own. She and her then wife found themselves in need of a sperm donor to become parents. Going through that process (and having an amazing, now 10 year old daughter, as a result!) really shed some light on the different ways people can grow their families, and the need for third party assistance such as sperm donors, egg donors and surrogates.

Carey wanted to help another couple have a child, just as she had been helped. She knew she didn't want to be an egg donor, but surrogacy was something that definitely interested her, as her pregnancy had been easy and she loved the experience of being pregnant. Let's see what Carey had to say about forging her path into surrogacy!

So you had your daughter via anonymous sperm donation and wanted to help others in need of assistance in growing their families. Tell us more about how you got here. 
Carey: I researched ways to help and found egg donation and surrogacy. I knew I didn’t want to be an egg donor because I don’t want to have a biological connection to a child I am not raising. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that - I think egg donation is amazing! But it just wasn't the route for me - plus I was 36 at the time and did not qualify to be an egg donor. I became a surrogate for another two mom family who were both unable to carry a pregnancy, due to medical issues. I delivered their little boy in late 2014 and aside from having my own child, it was the most amazing experience of my life.

You actually were pregnant with that surrogacy pregnancy when you started your own surrogacy agency, right? 

Carey: I did my surrogacy journey independently, without the help of an agency. I was not thrilled with the way things were being run by the agencies I interviewed, so I decided to take what I learned from doing everything myself for my own journey and start an agency that would do things the right way. I also had 15 years experience in business operations and management and used that to my advantage as well. My agency grew quickly and I was able to help hundreds of people all over the world build their families through the award-winning surrogacy agency I built and ran for 6 years. I sold that agency in 2020 and started Surrogacy Mentor, where our goal is to educate and help surrogate applicants match with reputable, ethical surrogacy agencies so they can have a safe, ethical and enjoyable surrogacy journey. I have now been in the surrogacy industry for almost a decade and still love it as much as I did on day one.

On top of all of the wonderful things you have done with your previous agency and now with Surrogacy Mentor, you are also very active in pushing for real change in the world of surrogacy and Assisted Reproductive Technology. Tell us more. 

Carey: My main goal has always been to do surrogacy in a safe, ethical and personal way. This led me to co-found and serve as co-president of the Oregon Surrogacy Professionals Association (OSPA). I also served as the LGBTQ Surrogacy Advisor for Parents Via Egg Donation (PVED), and on several committees for the Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy (SEEDS). I feel like as a community, we need to come together and hold ourselves to the highest of standards across the board, and I will always fight for better surrogacy education and ethics. The surrogates and families we work with deserve it.

If you’re ready to learn more about surrogacy, make sure to visit our website.

Connect With Us: