The answer varies from 1 visit (the birth), to 3 and more (which are optional). In the past, it used to be common that the parents fly to freeze the sperm at your clinic, and then use the time there to meet the medical staff that will guide them throughout the pregnancy.
Now, most countries in the world can work with sperm shipments, which makes it much easier to continue the process, even during the COVID crisis. Parents can now choose whether to fly to the clinic, or to freeze sperm abroad and send it to a clinic in the United States.
The necessary flight is obviously for the actual birth, around 2-3 weeks before the estimated due date.
However, most people choose to fly once more around gestational week 20 to be present for the 20-week ultrasound scan. The intended parents naturally want to experience the pregnancy as well, the large belly and maybe even to feel the baby kick, to spend time with the surrogate and to share experiences and photos. When it’s not possible to visit during the pregnancy (whether for financial reasons or because of a global pandemic, like we saw with COVID), most of the parents that I accompanied chose to fly earlier for the birth, even for the purpose of medical quarantine, and took advantage of the earlier flight to experience more of the pregnancy together with the surrogate. An early flight is definitely an option, but it’s important to remember that you can’t always assume that you’ll arrive on time because sometimes the surrogate goes into labor earlier than planned.
