India set to become a ‘pregnancy outsourcing’ hub

Chandigarh (Daily Bhaskar) : After gaining recognition in the IT sector, India is all set to become the pregnancy outsourcing hub in the world. The demand for surrogate mothers has been on the rise in the country, reports said.

In the past one year, the areas near Chandigarh have witnessed an increase of 40 per cent in the demand for surrogacy. On the other hand, the demand for surrogacy in the country as a whole has also been on the rise.
The demand of surrogacy has also been coming from the foreign nationals. One of the renowned embryologists, Dr Nirmal Bhasin, reveals that her IVF center has witnessed more than 24 cases of surrogacy in the past couple of years. There has been an increased demand of surrogacy by the NRI couples, she said.

The NRI couples find the Indian surrogate mothers to be ideal, in relation to the identical origin. The gynecologist of Fortis Hospital, Dr Shanojeet Sodhi, stated that there is comparatively low cost demanded by Indian surrogate mothers in comparison to European countries. This is also one of the reasons as to why the foreign nationals are seeking Indian surrogate mothers, she said.

On the rise of surrogacy in these areas, she stated that the women in this part of the country are stronger and healthier. The case of surrogacy can go kaput in case the surrogate mother or the child faces health concerns during pregnancy.

There has also been an increase in the number of single women turning volunteers for surrogacy. One of the major reasons behind the interests of single women in surrogacy is the amount of money that one can earn.
According to reports, the Indian surrogacy market is likely to reach USD 6 billion in the coming year.

Fake kahaani to embrace motherhood!

Radha Sharma (Times of India) AHMEDABAD: Vidya Balan's prosthetic baby bump in the film 'Kahaani' lent a twist to its climax. But in real life, prosthetic bellies are often used by childless women who trust surrogate mothers to give birth to their babies but want their families to believe otherwise.
Many women from traditional communities can't tell their in-laws and extended families that they have employed a surrogate and instead walk around with strap-ons for nine months to simulate a pregnant stomach.

In an extreme case, a gynecologist couple chose to have an incision on the stomach of the wife with sutures so that it looked like a caesarean section. An artificial stomach would not have worked in their case as there were many doctors in the family who are more difficult to deceive.

Surrogacy expert from Anand Dr Naina Patel says an IIT-graduate couple from Chennai opted for an artificial stomach as the woman wanted to avoid the disapproval of her in-laws. "She did not have a uterus and her in-laws would never have accepted that the child was born through another's woman's womb," says Patel.

Hema Inamdar, a soft toy maker, specializes in fake tummies. "A woman called from the UK saying she felt she was actually carrying a baby when she wore the tummy," says Inamdar. One can get artificial stomachs in sets of three. The first set simulates three, five and seven months pregnancy. The other set simulates five, seven and nine months, with one set costing roughly Rs 1,000.

Fertility expert Dr Falguni Bavishi says NRI women too succumb to familial pressure. "A Gujarati woman in the US took artificial tummies with her after employing a surrogate, so that her in-laws would believe she was pregnant. She told them that she had to deliver the baby where the IVF treatment was done, got the baby from the surrogate and went back, her secret intact," says Dr Bavishi.

Surrogacy gives birth to twiblings

Radha Sharma (Times of India), AHMEDABAD: Canadian businesswoman from Toronto, Lisa Parker, 38, became a mother of two recently within a gap of just one month! After four miscarriages and four failed invitro fertilization (IVF) cycles, she opted for two surrogate mothers instead of one to improve her chances of becoming a parent as quickly as possible. It worked. Both surrogates delivered what experts call not twins, not siblings - but 'twiblings'.
Lisa is among a growing breed of childless foreigners and NRIs who come to India and employ two surrogates to increase chances of finally having their own child. Lisa chose to come to Anand, often termed the global surrogacy capital. "I am in Anand since February, away from my business and family. I was desperate to become a parent and hence decided to undertake two cycles of treatment every month, apart using two surrogates. My son Rom came first followed by daughter Lee," Lisa, who has her own software firm, told TOI.
Such children are called twiblings since one sperm sample of the husband is split in two and used to make two different embryos. Technically, they would be twins if they were carried in a single womb but since they were carried in different wombs, they are siblings. Surrogacy professionals say twiblings are becoming commonplace as many childless couples do not mind spending more for implanting the embryos in two surrogates to maximize their chances.
In fact, twiblings are the outcome of the pace at which we live our lives these days. Many foreigners and NRIs desperately want a child, but they can't afford to stay back in India for long periods. It is not possible to totally abandon both their careers and their families. "I have used two surrogates each for three couple so far. In one case, the conception happened simultaneously while in another the woman as well as the surrogate became mothers," said Dr Naina Patel from Anand, considered a surrogacy expert.

Surrogate mothers face nightmares of surrogacy

India Today :
By Savita Verma/New Delhi
The poor surrogate mothers in Gujarat, who rent their wombs to augment the family income, have been confronted with the horrors of a pitiable payment and broken homes.

The Centre for Social Research, an NGO, revealed after talking to nearly 100 surrogate mothers and 50 commissioning parents in Anand, Surat and Jamnagar in Gujarat, that surrogacy has not gone down well with their husbands and children.

"We found some disturbing trends. For instance, though the husbands do not mind their wives to act as surrogate mothers, the spouse and her children distance themselves from her after she returns home following the birth of the baby," CSR director Dr Ranjana Kumari said.

In Anand, around 52 per cent of the surrogate mothers said they were abandoned by their husbands and that most of them had to fend for themselves and their children.

Around 14 per cent women in Surat and 20 per cent in Jamnagar said their relationship with their husbands soured. Many surrogate mothers - 100 per cent in Jamnagar, 83 per cent in Surat and 40 per cent in Anand - revealed that they lost contact with friends and members of the family after opting for surrogacy.

Surrogacy had a bearing on family equations. Close to 77 per cent women in Anand, 86 per cent in Surat and 100 per cent in Jamnagar said it affected the way their households were run.


For surrogate mothers, surrogacy has not gone down well with their husbands and children.Surrogate mothers said they suffered on account of the secrecy involved in the entire process. Around 82 per cent of them in Anand, 89 per cent in Surat and all in Jamnagar said the secrecy involved in the entire process of surrogacy made them vulnerable to suspicions.

To make matter worse, the amount of money given to the surrogate mothers was never fixed and was decided arbitrarily by the clinic or the doctor, the study found. These mothers were often left with just a pittance.

Of the Rs.12 to Rs.15 lakh for a surrogacy, the mothers get just about one or two per cent of the entire amount - that is not more than Rs.12,000 or Rs.15,000, the report said.

"Apart from being denied the promised amount, they are often paid in installments. Since most of them are illiterate, they lose count after a few installments," Kumari said.

In 97 per cent cases in Surat and 100 per cent in Jamnagar, most of the surrogate mothers were approached or targeted by agents or touts who make a killing through commissions.

It was also revealed that relationship between the surrogate mother and the commissioning parents remained harmonious in the beginning, but turned unpleasant towards the advanced stages of pregnancy because of hyperanticipation, monetary disagreements and other pretentious issues.

India has been a popular destination for surrogacy because of cheap medical facilities, advanced reproductive technological know-how and a hard-up population willing to make an extra buck to support their families.

The horrors were not restricted to poor payment. "It was found that surrogate mothers were made to undergo in-vitro fertilisation sessions 20-25 times for a successful impregnation. Current guidelines strictly prohibit this," Kumari said.

Apart from NRIs, couples from the US, Russia, the UK, Sweden, Israel and Australia come to India for the cheap surrogacy offered.