Surrogacy has become a viable option for many couples and individuals struggling with infertility or medical conditions that prevent them from carrying a child themselves. While the idea of surrogacy can be appealing, it is essential to consider the safety and well-being of the future child throughout the entire process.

In this article, we will explore the facts and figures surrounding surrogacy, including the medical and legal aspects, to understand how safe this option is for your future child.

Medical Screening and Genetic Testing

One of the critical factors in ensuring the safety of the future child is the medical screening of potential surrogates. Reputable surrogacy agencies and clinics adhere to stringent guidelines and conduct thorough medical and psychological assessments of potential surrogates. According to a study published in the Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences, proper medical screening helps identify and eliminate potential health risks that may be passed on to the child during pregnancy.

In addition to medical screening, genetic testing plays a significant role in ensuring the safety of the future child. According to data compiled by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), genetic testing of both the intended parents and the surrogate can identify potential genetic risks and hereditary conditions. Armed with this information, healthcare providers can make informed decisions and offer appropriate medical care during the pregnancy.

Success Rates and Outcomes

The success rates of surrogacy procedures have improved significantly in recent years, thanks to advancements in medical technology and better understanding of reproductive processes. According to a study published in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, the overall success rate of in vitro fertilization (IVF) using gestational surrogacy ranges from 40% to 50%.

Furthermore, the study highlighted that when intended parents use their own eggs and sperm in the surrogacy process, the success rates tend to be higher compared to using donor gametes.

“It is essential to discuss success rates and potential outcomes with medical professionals to set realistic expectations and make informed decisions” – Says Dr. Edel Pons Suarez, director of Surrogacybypons.com

Legal Protections and Regulations

The legal framework surrounding surrogacy varies from country to country and even from state to state within certain countries. In some regions, surrogacy is well-regulated and legally protected, providing a clear and defined legal framework for all parties involved. For instance, California in the United States is known for its well-established surrogacy laws, offering comprehensive protections for intended parents and surrogates.

According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 39% of intended parents in the United States turn to gestational surrogacy, which has a higher legal clarity due to the absence of genetic ties between the surrogate and the child.

However, in other parts of the world, the legal landscape may be less clear, potentially leading to legal complexities and uncertainties. This underscores the importance of consulting legal experts and working with reputable surrogacy agencies that are well-versed in the local laws and regulations.

DNA Testing of Surrogate and Parents

DNA testing of the surrogate mother who is set to carry the child, as well as the parents, offers a multitude of advantages.  This innovative procedure not only provides peace of mind for the intended parents, ensuring that the embryo implanted in the surrogate aligns with their genetic makeup, but also serves as a safeguard against potential legal and ethical complications.

By confirming the genetic connection between the intended parents and the unborn child, DNA testing can mitigate concerns surrounding parenthood, custody, and inheritance rights. You can buy this family planning DNA test here.  Proper testing also contributes to the overall transparency and trust between all parties involved. In essence, DNA testing adds an extra layer of confidence and clarity to an already intricate process.  It offers prospective parents an invaluable tool in their pursuit of a healthy family.

Emotional Considerations and Support

Surrogacy can be an emotionally complex journey for all parties involved – the intended parents, the surrogate, and even the future child. According to a study published in the journal Human Reproduction, intended parents often experience a range of emotions, from excitement and hope to anxiety and fear during the surrogacy process.

The emotional complexities that may arise during the surrogacy journey should be addressed. This is true for both the intended parents and the surrogate.  Provide comprehensive emotional support and counseling for all parties involved is fundamental. Emotional support can significantly impact the overall surrogacy experience, leading to a more positive outcome and a healthier emotional environment for the child.

Ensuring that the emotional well-being of everyone involved is a top priority, as it can shape the child’s perception of their birth story and their understanding of the surrogacy process. Building a strong support system and fostering open communication can help navigate the emotional challenges that may arise during this life-changing journey.

Post-Birth Care and Support for Babies

Post-birth care and support for surrogacy babies is an essential aspect of the surrogacy journey, ensuring the health and well-being of these special infants and their new family. The unique circumstances surrounding surrogacy births require a comprehensive approach.  Medical professionals and caregivers must collaborate to address the physical, emotional, and legal aspects of a surrogate-born child’s arrival.

Key considerations involved in post-birth care for surrogacy babies should include medical assessments and care for the baby at time of birth and within the following months.  Just as important is the exploration of bonding opportunities between baby and biological parents.  The to provide these little ones with a strong start in life.

Conclusion

The safety of surrogacy for your future child depends on various factors, including the medical and legal framework in the country or state where the surrogacy takes place, the qualifications and screening process of the surrogate, and the support provided by reputable surrogacy agencies. Medical screening and genetic testing are essential to identify and mitigate potential health risks, and legal protections offer clarity and security for all parties involved.

While the success rates of surrogacy procedures have improved, it is crucial to approach the process with realistic expectations and be aware of the potential emotional complexities. By carefully considering these factors and working with experienced professionals, intended parents can increase the likelihood of a safe and positive surrogacy experience for their future child. Open communication, trust, and a strong support system are key to ensuring the well-being of all parties involved throughout this life-changing journey.

Doxxing is a dangerous practice on the rise that can affect and harm many children. Parents need to be aware of this new digital danger to help keep their children safe. Doxxing is not an uncommon term, but certinaly not top of mind for most parents. Here’s all you need to know about doxxing and the steps to take to reduce the risk.

 What is Doxxing?

The act of doxxing is revealing someone’s information online. This information can be used to identify someone, such as their real name, address, bank details, employer, and more.

Crucially, doxxing is done to an individual without them knowing about it and is often done with the intent to harm or humiliate. Doxxing has become more and more common online as technology has advanced, leading to more children being put in difficult situations.

Some of the methods people use to Dox others include:

• Tracking usernames
• Running a WHOIS search
• Phishing
• Social media stalking
• IP address tracking

Why is Doxxing Dangerous?

Doxxing can be very dangerous for your children to experience. With their information becoming public, it can lead to things such as harassment, both online and in public, as well as stalking and potentially even fraud if banking information is revealed.

As doing so has the potential to reveal home addresses, it increases the risk of predatory behaviour, which many can’t bare thinking about. As well as this, having public information exposed to followers and other internet users, especially if your children want to keep it hidden, can also lead to them being bullied online. Doxxing can also be dangerous for minorities, as they may be targeted with abuse and harassment online.

However, one of the biggest dangers surrounding doxxing is the practice of Swatting. This is where doxxed information is used by strangers to call in police or swat teams to a victim’s address, citing a fake shooting or hostage situation. This has happened to many streamers on Twitch, and swatters usually do this for their own amusement.

Linda Shaffer, Chief People Operations Officer at Checkr, says, “Being a victim of Swatting can be traumatic and potentially life-changing. Individuals have the responsibility to protect their information, but businesses like ours also need to be committed to keeping customer information safe and secure.”

As you can imagine, having a swat team arrive at your property can be a very tense and dangerous situation if you don’t know how to deal with the situation, and multiple people have been injured and even killed after being Swatted.

5 Things Parents Can Do to Protect Kids

Parents worried about doxxing need to take action. Here are a few things you can do to protect your children:

1. Educate Your Children

Education is the best preventative measure to keep your children safe from doxing. By helping them understand the dangers and methods in which they can be doxxed, they can do more online to protect themselves.

One main thing you should teach them is to understand what information they should and shouldn’t share. Make your children aware that they should never disclose information about their address, identity, and bank details if they have any, as these can all be used to cause harm.

2. Check their profiles

Parents should maintain access to their children’s profiles and accounts to monitor what type of content they’re accessing. By periodically reviewing their accounts on socials and gaming software, you’ll better understand how vulnerable they’re making themselves. If you want to limit the type of content your children can access to help them be safe from doxxing, you can also block adult content.

Another thing parents can do is run a search for their kids online. By simply searching their names on a search engine, you’ll be able to see what kind of information comes up, allowing you to see how exposed they are. This knowledge can then help you make their accounts and digital selves more secure.

3. Promote the usage of different passwords and usernames

If your children use the same passwords for all their accounts and have similar usernames across their social media and more, they are a lot easier for a doxxer to track, making them much more vulnerable.

You can keep your children more secure by forcing them to utilize different passwords and usernames. It may be a bit harder for them to remember, but this added security helps ensure they can maintain privacy. As their details are different, it means that if one account is hacked, the others should still be safe.

Use good password standards as well by creating passwords that aren’t easy to guess and contain special keys, numbers, and capitalization.

4. Mask their IP address

One of the most common ways people are doxxed online is through their IP address. These details can reveal the location of your children, compromising them, and sometimes this information can be used to reveal further details.

The best way to protect them from this is to mask your IP address. This is best done with a virtual private network (VPN). The technology of how a VPN works is complicated, but the general idea is that it connects you with a different server, meaning that your device appears to be in a different location.

Volodymyr Shchegel, VP of Engineering at Clario, says, “VPNs are one of the best security programs you can get, alongside antivirus and firewalls. It protects your IP address, making it harder for hackers and doxxers to find you. These days, VPNs are an essential bit of kit.”

5. Remove Information from Data Brokers

You’ll be frightened at how much data about your children and even yourself is available online. When your children sign up for services and accounts, their details can be stored in data brokers, who can then sell that info to businesses who use t for better advert targeting.

Thankfully, you can request that this information is removed; it’s just a bit of a hassle. Some businesses can do this service for you, but if you have the patience, you can start removing the information stored on these brokers yourself.

Conclusion

Doxxing is something that parents need to be aware of. As technology advances, more and more dangers emerge online, and doxxing is added to the list of other risks that parents need to help limit.

There are many things that children can do to prevent doxing from happening to them. Following the advice mentioned above should help. As the issue gets more mainstream attention, expect changes to be made so that doxxing is severely punished, hopefully discouraging the practice. For now, ensure your children are mindful online and are aware of this danger when surfing online.

Looking for a way to encourage your child to be curious outside of school hours? You may be surprised to know that video games are a truly viable tool for learning.  Video games may not be everyone’s first pick for an educational tool, as the term often conjures up images of zombies, shooters, and gore.

There are games like that, of course, but it’s not always the case.  In fact, some video games can help your child learn more about a tricky subject than they might do in a traditional classroom setting. Skills like coding and problem-solving can be hard to learn for some children, but games like the ones shown in this list can make a huge difference.

Minecraft

To start, Minecraft is an incredibly popular sandbox adventure game with multiple ways to play and explore. If you feel that adventurous games would be a good fit for your child, this is the perfect pick for you.

While the base game in Minecraft might not immediately seem like an educational tool, playing it can actually help children to learn vital skills like problem-solving and creative thinking.

The crafting and engineering systems in the game are vast, and players will come across a number of issues they’ll need to solve without any specific instructions from the game. Tutorials are available, but the game encourages exploration and experimentation.

There’s even a specific version of the game for schools and businesses called Minecraft Education Edition. It teaches children about literacy, math, history, and coding, all in a fun and interactive format.

Baba Is You

Baba Is You is a fantastic indie game that’s best suited for players roughly aged eight and up. The gameplay offers a good blend of brain training and puzzle solving that requires some real lateral thinking.

One of the best things about Baba Is You is that it subverts what children may expect from a traditional game. Almost everything in the game can be interacted with, including elements like the walls surrounding a puzzle or the instructional text on screen.

It’ll push your child to think outside of the box and test their creative thinking.

If your child is younger than the recommended age, it could still be worth trying out this game and playing through it together. It’s a beautiful game with lovely graphics and music, and it’s clear that the development team put a lot of love into it.

Toca Lab

Toca Lab is much more of a niche game than the others on this list. This is a science-oriented educational game that focuses on the periodic table.

This game is cheery and colorful, and it has a light-hearted gameplay loop that makes an admittedly tricky topic much more approachable. If your child is struggling to remember scientific elements or write about them with confidence, this is a great game to check out.

Not only does this game look at scientific elements, but it also looks at different scientific tools and pieces of equipment. It’s a great introduction to what a science classroom can be like, which makes it a perfect pick if your child is just starting to focus on chemistry at school.

codeSpark Academy

If you’re looking to teach your child coding, codeSpark Academy is one of the highest-rated coding games on the market. It’s a bright and accessible title with a good mix of dedicated lessons and enjoyable puzzles with a coding theme.

Something that makes this game stand out from the crowd is that it lets children progress at their own pace. The lessons are self-led, and the games and puzzles are decently self-explanatory.

It’s no easy feat to make a difficult subject like coding feel accessible, but this game manages to do it nicely. If your child has been looking at coding in school but not finding much luck with it, this game could be the perfect solution.

Children can even build their own games through this app and share them with their friends, which is a brilliant way for them to see their work in action.

The game also has extra resources available to pair with the lessons, like workbooks.

Being a new parent can be an exciting time; however, it also comes with a whole new set of responsibilities. You are now responsible for another life in this world. From putting child-safe covers on outlets to installing safety netting on windows and balconies, the world with a small child is full of dangers you may have never noticed.

But what about your vehicle? Did you consider that you will need to childproof each vehicle to ensure your children’s safety while on the open road? And what does childproofing a vehicle even look like?

This article will discuss ways to childproof your vehicle to ensure a safe ride for you and the entire family.

Use the Right Car Seat for Your Child

Not only should children under the age of 13 sit in the back seat at all times, but you should also ensure that they are securely fastened in the appropriate car seat, depending on their age, height, and weight.

Here are some guidelines to follow:

• From birth until ages 2 to 4: When your child is a baby, you should use a rear-facing car seat, which should be placed in the middle seat of the back seat. The middle seat is the safest position for a car seat. Children should be placed in rear-facing car seats with a harness until they reach the car seat’s maximum height or weight limit.

• Until 5 or 6 years old: Once your child has outgrown their first car seat, they should be securely fastened into a seat that’s now forward-facing. The seat should come with a harness, and you can use this car seat until your child reaches the maximum height or weight limit of the seat.

• Until 9 to 12 years old: After they have outgrown the front-facing car seat, they are ready for a booster seat. Your child should be securely fastened into a booster seat until the vehicle’s seat belt fits properly. Proper seat belt fit typically occurs when children are between 9 to 12, depending on their size.

Activate Child Locks

Imagine taking your child on their first camping trip to get them off their screens and into the wilderness, and they suddenly open the door as you are cruising down the freeway at 70 miles per hour. This is an incredibly dangerous and scary scenario that can easily be prevented by making sure the child locks on your back passenger doors are activated.

Activating the child locks in your vehicle is easy. Simply open both rear passenger doors and find the metal toggle switches that turn the child locks on and off and flip them on.

Lock Windows

Arriving at your destination does not have to be the only goal of traveling. It’s an incredible way your kids to learn about the joy of the journey. It’s time spent together, fun playing games, and experiencing beautiful scenery along the way; however, do it safely. Always keep the passenger windows locked. Most vehicles have a window lock button on the window control panel on the driver’s side front door.

Ensure the window lock button is pushed in to prevent your child from opening the windows on their own and hanging their head or limbs out the window. Also, keeping the windows closed can help prevent rocks or other debris from flying into the car and striking your child.

Secure Unused Seat Belts

Unsecured seat belts could pose a strangulation hazard to your child if left unbuckled. Before starting the car, you should secure all unused seatbelts by buckling in the belt, slowly pulling the shoulder strap out, and slowly releasing it until you hear a clicking sound. The clicking sound means that the retractor is in the locked position and will remain tight enough that your child will be unable to pull on the belt.

Secure All Items in Your Vehicle

Any item not secured in your vehicle could become a dangerous projectile in the event of a car crash. Sports equipment, toys, tools, and essentially anything heavy or hard could potentially become dangerous if you are in an accident, hit a speed bump, or take a corner too fast. Protect your child by putting all heavy and hard items in the trunk of your car or the back of your truck, van, or SUV or by ensuring that the items are properly secured.

Conduct Regular Car Safety Checks

It’s crucial to check the safety of your car at regular intervals, especially if you’re often traveling with children. Your tires are what keep your car on the road, so proper tire maintenance is essential. Check tire pressure regularly and ensure tires have enough tread for better control.

Also, don’t forget the brakes. These should be checked every six months to ensure the brake pads aren’t worn out.

Other Tips for Kid’s Car Safety

Young Children Need To Sit in the Back

Most states and provinces in the US and Canada have laws barring children under the age of 13 from riding in the front seat of a vehicle. Even if it is not technically illegal, it is still highly recommended that children 12 and under ride in the back since airbag deployments can kill young children in the event of an accident.

Another thing to consider, even if your child is 13 or older, is that if they are smaller than average in size, you may consider keeping them on the back seat until they get a little bigger.

Never Eat in the Car

It may be tempting to eat in the car, especially on longer road trips. However, eating in the car is not only a distraction for the driver, but it is also a choking hazard for a young child. If you need to eat while traveling a longer distance, either stop at a restaurant and eat inside or park the car until everyone has finished eating. This will also help beat the boredom kids may feel on a long trip.

Never Leave the Keys in the Vehicle

Kids are curious beings, and you would be surprised how observant they can be and how much they learn by watching you. For this reason, you should never leave your keys in the vehicle. Leaving keys in your car unattended is a recipe for disaster. A child may be able to access the car keys, start the engine, disengage the parking brake, and even put the car into gear.

Never Leave Children Unattended in a Vehicle

Finally, never leave your child unattended in or around vehicles. Even if left alone for a short while, a child could be in danger of dehydration, heat stroke, overheating, injury, hypothermia, abduction, and even death.

In the summer months, even with a window cracked, temperatures in a vehicle can easily reach up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. A child can easily die if their core temperature reaches 107 degrees. Also, a child’s body temperature can rise five times faster than the average adult’s. Heat stroke is the number one cause of non-crash-related deaths in kids under 15.

Aside from heat stroke, dehydration, and overheating, an unsupervised child in a vehicle is more likely to injure themselves. Additionally, leaving a child unattended in a vehicle is extending a welcome invitation for abduction. For these reasons, you should never leave a child alone in a vehicle, even for one minute.

About the Author:
Ryan Harris is a copywriter focused on eLearning and the digital transitions going on in the education realm. Before turning to writing full time, Ryan worked for five years as a teacher in Tulsa and then spent six years overseeing product development at many successful Edtech companies, including 2U, EPAM, and NovoEd.