Episode 8 — Our Team: Taking This Journey With You: Inside Case Management with Rashelle

Kayla is joined by Rashelle, one of Reproductive Options' case managers, for an episode that starts with her own surrogacy story — and it's a rough one. Rashelle's first journey, back in 2016, involved a three-embryo transfer she was talked into by a large San Diego agency (something RO would never do now); it failed. Her second journey, with a new boutique agency and an intended mother she now calls her "soul sister," resulted in twins — but the agency itself provided zero support throughout, leaving Rashelle and her intended parents to lean entirely on each other. Things got worse after delivery: Rashelle ended up in the ICU with 14 blood transfusions, and the agency's only response was showing up with flowers — a visit her nurse cut short because they weren't family and flowers aren't allowed in the ICU. She never heard from them again.

That experience is exactly what pushed Rashelle toward case management herself. She traces her winding path from training to be a teacher, to being recruited into her first case management role through a Facebook post, to loving the work so much she carried 30 to 50 cases at once, unpaid overtime and all, until she was let go for being "too slow."

She found Reproductive Options through a job posting, submitted her application from SeaWorld with her kids in tow, and has been there ever since.

Kayla and Rashelle talk through what real support looks like day to day: reaching out to every surrogate right after match, meeting each person exactly where they are (text all day for some, a single email for others), showing up in person to appointments for local surrogates, and holding space for both the hard days and the joyful ones. Rashelle's signature line to her surrogates: there's no such thing as TMI.

The episode closes with a preview of what's ahead — a new partnership with Rachel Goldberg, who conducts most of RO's psychological evaluations and will now provide ongoing monthly mental health check-ins throughout every surrogate's journey, something Rashelle says she wishes she'd had during her own. Kayla also previews where the Our Team series goes next, moving beyond RO's internal staff to the extended team that supports every journey: legal, escrow, and mental health professionals.

In this episode:

• Rashelle's own surrogacy journey, including a traumatic delivery and an agency that disappeared when she needed them most
• Why her path into case management started with a Facebook post and an unsustainable 30-to-50-case caseload
• What personalized, "meet them where they are" support actually looks like at Reproductive Options
• A first look at RO's new ongoing mental health support with Rachel Goldberg
• What's coming next in the Our Team series: the legal, escrow, and mental health professionals who round out a surrogate's support system