Friday 11 October 2013

Surrogate Pregnancy - A Side Unexplored

By Dr. Shobha Gupta

Surrogacy in India
As many of us know that Surrogacy is now a well explored and accepted form of starting a family that people are turning to. Derived from the Latin word surrogates referring to substitution, the word simply means a biological or non biological mother carrying the child of another woman for full nine months.

Surrogacy is advised to those who have either no or a malformed uterus, uterus damaged due to infection/ tumor, and where the uterus is removed for some clinical process. Surrogacy is also for those couples intending to be parents but where the woman is having repeated miscarriages.

When pregnancy is a life threatening condition for the woman, in India however, the prime reason for surrogacy is the cost factor which is approximately 5 times cheaper as compared elsewhere. In 2007, ICSI costed 4 lakhs abroad (U.K) and here the price was 60,000/-even today if we consider their commuting, stay charges but excluding drugs for stimulation, it would still be cheaper to many outstation parents to be.

Some other factors working in the favor of India are the teams of doctors who are US/ UK trained and educated, the equipments are also imported from Europe or US and there is marginally no language barrier makes India as the amiable destination for many seeking pregnancy through a surrogate.

One reason that many of us do not know is that India is also a premium centre for surrogacy due to the healthy lifestyle of an Indian women. Indian women are categorically marked as someone not engaged in drugs, smoking, and alcohol and having a balanced and fresh food and vegetables in her diet which makes India a preferred destination for many foreign couples as females are fertile here as compared to females living in abroad. 

When it comes to surrogates in India, they have a proper screening process that includes being watchful of the age that should be between approx. 21 – 35 years. It is made sure that they are married with kids; with uncomplicated pregnancies, this helps to discern that she can successfully carry the pregnancy to completion. Their medical, personal and family history is also gauged to decipher the mental and the physical well being of the surrogate.

After the preliminary screening of the surrogate, a well detailed contract as per the ICMR guideline is made between the surrogate and the couples in question that are comprehensive too well guard all the three main parties involves – the parent, child and the surrogate. 

Many surrogate centers provide all these services and are very stringent about it. There are separate departments for paper work where the contract along with the medical reports is collated in one file and submitted to the embassy. Hence, the overall lack of legal hassles with the Indian Government ensuring that the commissioning parents are parents on Birth Certificate and for all legal and custodial purposes also adds to the advantage of surrogacy in India.

In our centre- Mother's Lap, “When it comes to providing legal aid, there is an independent lawyer that we recommend to parents as he is very experienced with these matters but couples are free to decide who they choose”.

“Surrogacy in India is booming as monthly on an average we have about 2-3 Indian patients and 25 International parents that are from Australia, America, Europe, UK,  Korea, China, Middle East, Jakarta, and Africa all in their late thirties or early forties every month.” 

Commenting on the success ratio of the surrogacy in India, Dr. Shobha informs that “the miscarriage rate is 15 % however 55% - carry back their baby. In case of 4 embryos, success rate is 8/10 as females are fertile here. This is indeed a very safe ratio to rely on.”

Summing it up, we can say that Surrogacy overall has definitely proven to be one Godsend means for many who while undergoing a complication thought that starting a family is just a distant dream. With modern amenities, well trained staff on hand and overall healthy surrogates, India sure has become a hum of surrogate pregnancy. 

If you are looking for simple pleasures of being a parent, if you are prepared to accept this lifelong responsibility, then this pregnancy awareness week you would be enthralled to know that your dream is just a surrogate away.

About the MOTHERS LAP IVF CENTRE

The Mothers Lap is a world class advanced fertility, IVF and Surrogacy centre based in Pitampura, New Delhi. This Center is the brightest ray of hope for all those couples who have been trying for years to conceive. The clinic provides the treatment to childless couples, also provides treatment for male and female infertility, diagnosis, counseling and many more under one roof. Mothers Lap gets all the investigations done; provide 4D Doppler studies, as well as all the drugs and injections are provided.

Dr. Shobha Gupta is the managing director of Mothers Lap IVF centre (MBBS (LHMC) DGO (MAMC), MD in OBS & Gynae, Trained in ART under Justus Leibig University (Germany), Member of FOGSI, AOGD, IFS, IMA).  Mother's lap IVF center is dedicated to every aspect of infertility treatment to help the patients to achieve pregnancy in the shortest possible time. 

Contact Mothers Lap IVF Centre for Surrogacy, Infertility treatments, Egg donation, Test Tube baby, IUI, ICSI and Freezing embryos




Dr. Shobha Gupta, Director and IVF Expert, Mother's Lap IVF Centre

No comments:

Post a Comment