Surrogacy agency near me: Private Label Surrogacy in Northbrook, Illinois

Where is the nearest surrogacy agency to me in the Chicago suburbs?

If you live on the North Shore or in the northern suburbs, Private Label Surrogacy is likely the closest surrogacy agency to you. The office is at 1721 Mission Hills Road, Unit 406, Northbrook, IL 60062, off the Edens Expressway near the Lake Cook Road exit. It is about 25 miles north of the Loop.

Phone (847) 496-0600. Email team@privatelabelsurrogacy.com.

Office hours: [hours to confirm with Nancy]. Consultations by appointment.

Drive times vary with traffic. They matter less than you might expect, for reasons the next sections explain.

What happens at a first consultation in Northbrook?

The first consultation is a working meeting, not a sales call. It takes about an hour, in person at the Northbrook office or by video, and you meet Nancy Block, RN, who founded PLS in 2017 and personally runs matching. In-person consultations are routine at the Northbrook office: confirm with Nancy.

Expect to cover:

• Where you are medically. Whether you have embryos, are creating them, or need an egg donor, and which clinic you use.
• What the journey costs and when each payment falls. The program fee schedule, third-party costs, surrogate compensation and the independent escrow structure.
• How long it takes now. About 9 months from signing to meeting a surrogate today, with a target of 6 months or fewer, and 18 to 24 months for the whole journey.
• Who you will work with. The case manager who will carry your match. Both PLS case managers, Natalie Gaudio-Fricano and Jenni Symons, have been gestational surrogates themselves.
• What PLS does not do. PLS does not employ the attorneys, psychologists or escrow agents in your journey. It refers to independent licensed professionals, and you can choose your own.

You meet the team before any fee is paid. Bring your questions in writing; a good agency answers each one with a number, a name or a document.

Do I need to live near the agency to work with PLS?

No. Intended parents across the US and abroad work with PLS by phone and video. Surrogates do their medical screening at a fertility clinic, not at the agency, and they apply online from any surrogacy-friendly state.

Most of a journey happens in three places, none of them the agency office:

1. Your fertility clinic, which creates embryos, screens the surrogate medically and performs the transfer.
2. A clinic near the surrogate's home, where she does monitoring appointments before transfer and in early pregnancy.
3. The surrogate's OB and delivering hospital, for prenatal care and birth.

The agency's job is to coordinate all three, plus the attorneys, escrow agent and insurance review. That is done by phone, video, email and text. Jan Telman Berman, PLS's Global Surrogacy Coordinator, has managed national and international cycles for more than 18 years; families in other time zones are routine.

For surrogates, distance from the agency does not change anything that matters. Eligibility and compensation are the same across Illinois and every state PLS recruits in. Monitoring is usually at a clinic near the surrogate's home, and when she travels to the intended parents' clinic for screening or transfer, PLS covers the travel. Her case manager is a phone call or text away, and her nutrition consults with Julie Bendix, MPH, RD, LD, CLC, are part of the journey wherever she lives.

For intended parents, the one meeting many families like to have in person is the first consultation. After that, your contact with PLS follows the journey: frequent while matching and contracts are under way, then steady updates from the case manager through the pregnancy and the birth.

Which hospitals and clinics are close to the Northbrook office?

PLS works with 14 partner fertility centers, including Kindbody, Shady Grove Fertility, Fertility Centers of Illinois and Oregon Reproductive Medicine. In the Chicago area, Fertility Centers of Illinois and Kindbody have locations families use for IVF and for surrogate monitoring. Partner clinic locations nearest the Northbrook office: [confirm current locations].

You do not have to use a partner clinic. PLS coordinates with any licensed IVF clinic you choose.

For delivery, the hospital is chosen with the surrogate's OB, usually close to where she lives. Any hospital with an obstetrics unit can handle a surrogate birth. PLS coordinates the birth plan and the legal paperwork with the hospital in advance, so the staff know who the intended parents are before labor starts.

Nancy knows the Chicago hospital side from the inside: she spent 17 years as an OB/GYN and fertility nurse and staff educator at Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Prentice Women's Pavilion.

How do I apply as a surrogate from the North Shore?

Start with the short online prescreen. It asks the questions that decide eligibility first, so you know quickly whether to continue. To apply with PLS you must be:

• 21 to 43 years old
• A US citizen or permanent resident
• At a BMI under 33
• Someone who has had at least one healthy full-term pregnancy and is raising a child now
• A non-smoker
• Not receiving government assistance
• Living in a stable home
• Not currently taking antidepressants

After the prescreen, the full application leads to an interview with a case manager, a medical records review by Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, a background check, an insurance review, a psychological evaluation by an independent licensed professional, and medical screening at the intended parents' clinic. From application to match averages about 6 months.

First-time base compensation is $60,000 (proposed), within a typical total package of roughly $68,000 to $78,000. PLS pays the same across Illinois. See how to become a surrogate in Illinois.

What should 'near me' really mean when choosing an agency?

Proximity matters less than the standard. A nearby agency is convenient for a first meeting. After that, what protects you is how the agency works, and those things are the same whether you live five minutes away or five time zones away.

Ask any agency, near or far:

• Who holds the money? PLS never holds client funds. Intended parents fund an independent licensed escrow agent, $10,000 at match and the balance before medications start, and may choose their own escrow company.
• Who reads the surrogate's records? At PLS, Dr. Silverberg reads every candidate's prenatal and delivery records and writes a physician medical summary for your clinic.
• Are the attorneys and psychologist independent? At PLS, yes, by policy.
• Who answers the phone at night? PLS's after-hours team once rebooked a stranded surrogate's hotel, car and flight on the same night another PLS surrogate delivered twins.

If those answers are right and the agency is also close, that is a bonus. If you want to compare, see the Chicago agency page, the North Shore and suburbs page and the Illinois surrogacy overview.

Parking: free surface parking at the Mission Hills Road office [confirm].