Canadian Surrogacy WEBINAR

Andrea has the most wonderful blended family with her partner, and 4 kids between them who are 20,13, 9 and 7. She lived on Vancouver Island for the first 37 years of herlife, however her partner’s Military career led them to move to Ontario.

In 2018 I made the lifelong decision to finally become a surrogate. Through the highs and lows, Andrea carried & delivered a sweet little girl in 2020. After having such a great 1st journey, she is now 20 weeks pregnant for a couple who have become favourite people. Andrea is passionate about human connection and truly believes that when people have the ability to help someone, to do it… Andrea is currently working in the Fertility industry as a Surrogate Coordinator – where she can assist in surrogates having successful, happy and rewarding journeys. 

Charlie and Gillan Wilson engaged in Canadian surrogacy with the help of Canadian Surrogacy Consulting and Canadian lawyer Cindy Wasser. Their journey has been one of ups and downs, stretching over a couple of years, but ultimately with a very happy outcome. When these guys started out it all felt very complicated, with lots of different introductions to lots of different agencies, legal processes and medical personnel. It all felt a bit overwhelming, but every person t hey met along their journey was wonderfully welcoming, supportive, understanding, helpful and seemed to genuinely care about them, doing all they could to ensure a happy outcome. Charlie’s son Milo was born in Nova Scotia in December 2022.  Charlie will share details of the altruistic Canadian process and what they learned along the way

After celebrating more than 20 years as one of Canada’s top criminal defence lawyers, Cindy Wasser thought she was retiring in 2008 to become a mother to the first of her two daughters created with the help of an egg donor and surrogate. Driven by her difficult path to parenthood, she instead founded Hope Springs Fertility Law, to guide, protect and advocate for everyone building families with the help of donors and surrogates. She has since grown Hope Springs into a leading fertility law firm, providing legal advice and services to hundreds of intended parents, donors and surrogates from across Canada and around the world, year after year. With her background in criminal law, and personal experience with surrogacy and egg donation, Cindy occupies a uniquely revered position within the fertility law community. She regularly uses this influence to advocate for stronger rights and protections for intended parents, donors and surrogates within Canada, and has become well-known internationally as a respected leader in this complex and evolving area of law.

Dr. Librach is the Director of the CReATe Fertility Centre.  A graduate of University of Toronto, he completed undergrad, graduate and a specialty degree in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Dr. Librach went on to spend 3 years at the University of California in San Francisco becoming a board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist. Since 1991 Dr. Librach has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto. He is a Co-Director of the University of Toronto Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Clinic. He is the principal investigator in various clinical and embryology studies and researcher at Women’s College Hospital and University of Toronto. Dr. Librach has played an active role in presenting abstracts at various conferences and meetings. He is frequently interviewed for television, radio and print media.

Hannah has MRKH, and she and her partner tried to find a surrogate in the UK but after exploring international options they stumbled on the Canadian model. They worked with CFC, who found them a great surrogate in Edmonton in 3 months ( that quick a match doesn’t happen anymore). Hannah flew their embryos from London to Toronto and were successful on their first attempt using Create. They had a boy in August 2017 and luckily their surrogate offered to do a sibling journey, delivering another boy in April 2019. 

For the past 25 years, Jan Silverman has worked in the field of reproductive health; supporting, educating and advocating for those requiring assistance to make their families. Starting off as a grass roots advocate, Jan co-founded the first Canadian infertility support network. After earning a second master’s degree, Jan established and ran the infertility support and education program at women’s college hospital in Toronto for 21 years. Jan was one of 11 experts selected to participate in the provincial expert panel on infertility and adoption. She is now in private practice providing counselling services to the Create Fertility Centre. Over the years she has provided services to the Gay Parenting Network, Daddies and Papas To Be and Dykes Having Tykes. Jan created her own family by adopting two (former) children.

German parents Johannes and Sebastian had their first child Melissa with the help of a Canadian egg donor and Canadian surrogate, and now they’re choosing Canada again for their journey to have a second child!  A key reason why Johannes and Sebastian chose to become parents through surrogacy in Canada is because they liked that the altruistic model means that Canadian surrogates choose who to complete a journey with based on an alignment with their values.  You can learn more about their journey in this blog post: https://hopespringsfertility.com/featured-videos-and-blogs/surrogacy-journey-snapshots-from-canada-to-nurnberg/

Kelsey works in conjunction with Egg Helpers and is an egg donor to a beautiful family in Fance. She is very passionate to be working in conjunction with Surrogates, Egg Donors and Intended Parents to help build your dream families.

Libby is a married military wife and mother of two boys (7 and almost 4). Born and raised in Halifax, NS. However, Libby and her husband spent their 20’s living in Vancouver which is where they really grew as people and call their chosen home. It was also where they welcomed their first son before moving back to Halifax to live closer to family and then have their second son. Currently posted to Petawawa which is where Libby delivered her first surrogate baby (belly buddy) this past August.

Mark & Damian live in Ireland. Their journey began at a Growing Families  conference in 2016  where they met a number of Surrogacy agencies and fertility clinics.  In 2022 they engaged in a second surrogacy journey with a first-time Canadian surrogate in Sun Peaks, British Colombia with the help of Canadian Fertility Consulting. In early July 2023 they welcomed their second child

Molly is an Irish mum via surrogacy in Canada

Sam Everingham is the Global Director of Growing Families.  He has become one of the globe’s foremost commentators and researchers on donor & surrogacy trends and capacity. Through conferences, seminars and consulting he has assisted over a thousand singles and couples to plan safe and reliable routes to building families through surrogacy & donor IVF.

Sam has two daughters, Zoe & Ruby, via surrogacy and therefore is very aware of the issues, struggles and frustrations along the surrogacy path.  With a background in public health and research he is also the author of several books.

Scott is a Dad to four kids, Having a family is important to him, so his role running Egg Helper’s clients gives him immense satisfaction. Scott’s background in the medical industry started over twenty years ago, and his passion has now brought him to head up EggHelpers. Scott’s ex-wife has been a Surrogate many times as well as an egg donor several times. Scott is now also the CEO of Canada’s largest surrogate support agency, CFC.