If you want to grow your family through adoption, there’s a lot to think about. Do you have the time and money traditional adoption requires? Are you interested in adopting from a foreign country, or would you like to adopt domestically?

These questions often plague potential adoptive parents. However, they’re not comprehensive. After all, there’s one adoption method that’s often accidentally excluded from the running: embryo adoption.

The remaining embryos that result from in vitro fertilization (IVF) are often discarded or kept frozen. Luckily, there’s now another option for families—donating to other infertile couples.

When parents finish forming their own families, they can donate their remaining embryos. This is a beautiful and altruistic gift that allows a couple to help others just like them, which is a big benefit of embryo donation. On the other side of things, a family that adopts embryos receives several unique benefits, too.

Below, you’ll find five advantages of embryo adoption. Although there are many other pros, the five benefits listed below will give you a preliminary understanding of this amazing opportunity.

1) Two-Way Conversation 

One of the top advantages of embryo adoption is that it often allows you to form a relationship with the donating family. Although this benefit can be found in other types of adoption, such as domestic and international child adoption, the two-way conversation that takes place surrounding embryo adoption is often unique. Adoption rules are generally fairly rigid, which can make it difficult for parents to dictate the relationship they will have with their child’s birth parents. With embryo adoption, if you work with an organization like the National Registry for Adoption, you’ll be able to talk with your donating family and determine the type of relationship you’d like to have with them.

Knowing your child’s genetic parents and siblings is a wonderful blessing that can help you feel supported and confident.

2) Experience Pregnancy and Childbirth

Many families who have trouble conceiving often wonder if they’ll ever be able to experience pregnancy and childbirth. When they begin to consider adoption, it’s not uncommon for them to mourn, as they feel that they will never be able to experience some of life’s most defining events.

Fortunately, with embryo adoption, parents can experience both pregnancy and childbirth.

3) Immediate Bonding

Unborn babies are familiar with their mother’s voice and touch. During pregnancy, bonding takes place in a very natural way that allows a mom and her child to connect. Due to this fact, it’s not uncommon for adoptive families to feel unbonded to their children during their gestation. Adoptive parents often only experience the bonding process after the child is born.