Surrogate Mother Services

In a land where life is cheap, renting a womb is an easy task for foreigners

•    BY:- FRANCIS ELLIOTT, DELHI 
•    From:The Times 
•    April 11, 2012 12:00A

A Spanish gay couple in New Delhi with their new twins born to a surrogate mother. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

They are reminders, if any were needed, of why the women are spending nine months away from husbands and prying neighbours, but under the watchful eye of a team of "counsellors".

Rihana Khan, 21, covers her face with her scarf as she explains the additional care she is taking with her second pregnancy. "The first time, with my own child, I didn't care at all what I was eating or about lifting weights. This time I am much, much more careful. There is a lot more at stake."

She is carrying twins on the last leg of a journey that began on the other side of the world: the clinic that has paid her to be a surrogate mother services an agency in Israel that helps gay men become fathers. Their sperm is sent to the US, where egg donors, usually white women from South Africa or Ukraine, are waiting. The resulting embryos are frozen and flown to India.

The hostel where Ms Khan is staying is one of three run by Wyzax Surrogacy Consultants, which at present houses 18 surrogate mothers, but sometimes has double that. To keep costs down, the company specialises in mass embryo transfers - 30 at a time. The bulk order also caters for an emerging trend for gay male couples who want two simultaneous surrogate pregnancies so both men can father a child.

The women were recruited from an "untapped area", said Jagatjeet Singh, the company's director. The "semi-rural area" (in fact, a slum) was chosen so that the company could "educate the women and their families in a clean slate", he said.

For Najma Khan, 31, the numbers add up. Her husband earns 10,000 rupees ($190) a month dealing in the waste plastic collected by rag-pickers.

She is not at all embarrassed by her decision. "I am doing this for the education of my own children, but I cannot tell them.

Research by the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research suggests high percentages of surrogate mothers are shunned by their families when they return. A survey carried out in Gujarat, traditionally the centre of the surrogacy trade, found fewer than 3 per cent had a copy of their contract. Although three-quarters say they want the cash to educate their own children, researchers found cases of coercion. "We came across women who told us the decision to become surrogates was not their own. They had to agree because their husbands wanted them to. The smile was missing from the faces of the women I met at the shelter homes," Manasi Mishra, the lead author of a report on the trade, said.

In an upmarket part of Delhi, Shivani Sachdev Gaur, the director of Surrogacy Centre of India, says she has never been busier. "I have 126 pregnancies right now. In April, couples from eight different countries will come here, from Ecuador to the UK. We get 300 inquiries a month - I see the acceptance going up.

"Today, for example, a court in Argentina has ruled that a single gay man who is a client of ours can be registered as the child's father."

Dr Gaur says India enjoys an advantage over other countries not just because of the cost, but also due to the lifestyle of the women. "Drug abuse, smoking and drinking alcohol among women is very rare."

She insists her clinic is careful to weed out would-be surrogates who might be coerced and that all recruits are put through stringent psychological as well as medical assessments.

On the whole, the parents make no stipulations about the woman who carries the baby. The exception is that some Hindu and Muslim clients ask for surrogates of their own religion. Most want to meet the woman who carried their child, if only fleetingly, after the babies are born - almost always by caesarean section.

"There's less risk to the babies that way and the intended parents can make sure they are there," Mr Singh said.

Surrogacy Business

Give Money get Baby

Tabassum Aara, 22, lives with her husband and 18-month-old son in their rented one-room flat in Loni on the outskirts of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Her husband, a daily wage labourer, earns about Rs200 a day, barely enough for food and rent.
Four months ago, Tabassum heard about the “easy, reliable and dignified” way to earn some extra money from her neighbour Nazma, 29. Nazma recently bought a semi-automatic washing machine, a Panasonic television, a Hero Honda bike and they are soon going to buy a house of their own. “She delivered a baby for a couple who could never get a baby on their own,” says Tabassum, who is three-months pregnant. “It's such a sacred work. We decided to do it. If you do it for them, you will get what you want.”
Tabassum is not the only one renting her womb in this village. Every fourth house has an aspiring surrogate mother. For them, it is the quickest way to improve their quality of life. A surrogate mother can earn up to Rs3 lakh for the delivery, plus a monthly allowance of Rs10,000 towards her diet and other needs during the pregnancy. In case of twins or triplets, she gets 11 lakh extra per child. A caesarean section adds another Rs50,000 to the purse.

No wonder, there is a waiting list, which surrogacy agents sort out on a first-come-first-serve basis. “A 2sq.m plot in Loni costs around Rs2 lakh, another Rs15,000 goes towards the construction of a room. So, even after buying land and constructing a house of their own, the surrogate is left with enough money to realise their dreams,” says Sonu, who runs a surrogacy agency at his home in Tabassum's village.
Till four years ago, Sonu was the local electrician. Today, he is called ‘doctor saab' by most of the surrogates. He owns a three-storey house, a plot of land, a new Indica car and a second-hand Zen. His house is done in ceramic tiles and his bedroom on the second floor boasts a fancy music system, a refrigerator and wide-screen television. Sonu's job is to finalise the deal between surrogates and clients, and ensure the surrogates get their routine medical check-ups. He earns up to Rs1 lakh as commission for every successful delivery.
Farida, 33, who delivered twins for an Indian couple, sent her two sons to a public school, after she conceived for a Swedish couple. “We get Rs10,000 every month. Even after spending Rs5,000 on the food prescribed by my doctor we can afford to send our sons to a good school. We invested money we got at the time of my delivery in a small business and have got a source of regular income. What more can I ask for?” says Farida, sitting in her one-room flat in Loni.
Seeing the business potential, some big-time players have also ventured into surrogacy. Wyzax Surrogacy Consultants, a pharmaceutical company which started a surrogacy agency two years ago, claims to have corporatised surrogacy in India. Says Jagatjeet Singh, a founder member of Wyzax Surrogacy Consultants: “I went through a horrible time while searching for a surrogate mother for my friend four years ago. I realised both surrogates and the intended parents were exploited in the process. So I decided to start a surrogacy agency with an aim to make the whole process systematic and transparent. We follow standardised operation protocols, which strictly comply with the Indian Council of Medical Research's guidelines on surrogacy,” says Singh.
The company offers some readymade packages and also customises them according to their clients' needs. The package starts from Rs8 lakh, which includes an IVF cycle by a specialist, lodging of the surrogate and her fees, and the cost of a normal delivery. “If the couple wants to attempt a second cycle of IVF, we don't charge them for the extraction of eggs,” says Singh.
The company also arranges for egg donors, who are required in at least 60 per cent of the cases. The charge varies depending on the kind of donor the parents want. For example, an Indian donor charges from Rs40,000 to Rs75,000, while a Caucasian donor may charge over Rs5,76,000 per attempt. “Couples generally want the egg donor to look similar to them,” says Singh. “Besides similar looks, her religion, education and medical history matter. Lately, people have also started to ask for a surrogate who has young children (preferably less than three years old). It is a tough hunt, but we try to satisfy our clients.”
Besides, the company claims to know the best IVF specialists in town and can prescribe a specialist according to the client's need. “An IVF specialist needs expertise in various sub-branches of IVF. Being in the gynaecological business, we can judge a doctor's capability. It is as complicated as other surgical fields of medicine,” says Singh.
The surrogates are taken care of through the ‘tripod system', which involves social workers, field coordinators and case managers, says Singh. The social workers help in spotting an aspiring surrogate, while the field coordinators take care of all the arrangements at a surrogate's home—from food to electricity. They also help the surrogate mother find a suitable school for her children. All the talking is left to the case managers, who are responsible for taking care of the legal aspects of the deal.
Surrogacy is a long process which starts with the counselling of the intended parents. Counsellors check the mental and financial stability of the person or the couple seeking surrogacy. The hunt for the surrogate mother begins after the legal matters are taken care of. The surrogate mother and client meet to finalise the deal. The surrogate undergoes a series of medical tests to rule out the possibility of any disorder and deficiency before she undergoes embryo transfer. If it succeeds, she is  moved to a surrogate home with her children, where she lives till the  delivery. She undergoes weekly check-ups in the first three months and fortnightly check-ups thereafter.
The surrogate homes are generally one-room apartments, where a surrogate spends 10 to 11 months. These apartments are complete with television, refrigerator and coolers. They can also be single rooms, one-bedroom flats or a big house with separate rooms for each surrogate depending on the surrogacy agency. Surrogates live with their children and husbands, and relatives are allowed to visit during the day. There are some surrogate agencies like Surrogacy India that allow husbands to stay with surrogates. “We believe that surrogate should not be deprived of a normal life during this process. And having their family around keep them happy,” says Dr Yashoda, director, Surrogacy India, a surrogate consultancy, Mumbai. Apart from a hygienic environment, they are taken care of by surrogate social workers. These social workers' responsibility includes ensuring the surrogate has meals and medicines on time and taking them for their scheduled medical check-ups.
For many surrogate mothers, it is an opportunity to take care of their own health, too. For the nine months that they are pregnant, they are given milk twice a day with protein powder, fresh fruits, green leafy vegetables, vitamin and mineral supplements in a hygienic environment. Nazma, 29, who gave birth to a child two years ago, says since she delivered the child, she has been feeling healthier and wants to attempt it again.
Even IVF specialists and gynaecologists dealing with surrogate mothers feel that if done in a transparent manner, surrogacy screens them for all their medical problems. “They are screened for their vitamin and hormonal deficiencies and many dormant medical problems get diagnosed and are taken care of during their pregnancy. Around 30 per cent of the aspiring surrogates are found to be anaemic and suffer from hypothyroidism. These problems go unnoticed otherwise, given their socio-economic background,” says Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj of Nurture Fertility Clinic, Delhi.

Doctors believe that surrogacy is increasingly becoming more acceptable for both the intended parents and surrogate mothers. Aamir Khan's public acceptance about his baby being born with the help of a surrogate mother also seems to have changed the surrogacy scene for good in India. Doctors of many major corporate hospitals such as Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Fortis Hospitals recommend surrogacy as an option to childless couples.
Dr Hrishikesh Pai, an IVF expert with Fortis La Femme, Delhi, and Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai, feels that there is nothing wrong in someone paying a surrogate mother, given the intended parents have no other means to have their biological child. Around 10 per cent of people who need IVF as a fertility treatment need a surrogate.
Multiple fibroids, absence of uterus, malignancies and tuberculosis can damage the reproductive abilities of a person. Also, in couples who could not conceive even after 10 IVF attempts, surrogacy is the only option left if they want a biological child. “Eighty per cent of my clients are Indian. The rest are foreigners who come for three reasons: easy availability of surrogates, affordability, and state-of-the-art medical facility,” says Pai.
Interestingly, with more awareness and acceptability, parents feel morally obliged to the surrogate mothers and also do something beyond the original business arrangement. Many couples go out of their way to ensure that the benefits reach the surrogate. Delhi-based dentist couple  Dr Dheeraj Chopra and his wife got their twins with the help of IVF surrogacy. As they were not sure whether her share of money would reach the surrogate mother, they handed it to her themselves. They also took up the responsibility of the education of her three children. Even a year after the baby was born, Chopra visits the surrogate mother. “We continue to feel obliged, even though it was a clear business arrangement. The surrogate mother does not feel attached to my kids, but still she gave us the happiness of our lives. We can at least do this much to change her life,” says Chopra.
Like Chopra, Alex of Australia continues to be in touch with the surrogate who gave birth to her baby. Alex, 40, got a baby through IVF surrogacy two years ago. She comes to India from Australia every six months just to meet the surrogate mother. She brings her baby along and does not mind him sharing a bond with the woman who kept him in his womb for nine months.

Manpreet and Paul Lice did everything they could to have a baby of their own. But when nothing, including three cycles of IVF, worked, the couple decided to opt for surrogacy. They wanted an Indian mother and contacted Dr Shivani Sechdev Gaur's ISIS Fertility Clinic in Delhi. The couple is now the proud parents of a two-month-old baby girl, Samaira. The couple says the support of their families went a long way in making the whole process a success.
Besides money, a surrogate mother learns the importance of hygiene, clean water, diet and education. Rahima, a 22-year-old from a village near Delhi, believes that three months into surrogacy has empowered her. “I interacted with other surrogate mothers and learnt how those who have delivered the child spent their money,” says Rahima, who is at a surrogate home near Janakpuri in Delhi. “I know what I want to do with the money. I have got a bank account in my name and deposit my monthly allowance in it.”

ICMR guidelines

* The proposed ART Rules and Bill legalise surrogacy and state that a surrogate mother can get monetary compensation for carrying the child, in addition to health care and expenses during pregnancy.
* The surrogate mother has to relinquish all the paternal rights over the child once the amount is transferred. The birth certificate will be in the name of the genetic parents.
* Surrogate mothers should be in the age group of 21 to 45 years and should have children of their own.
* They should not attempt more than three cycles of IVF in their lifetime.
* Single parents can also have children using a surrogate mother.
* Foreign couples seeking surrogacy should first register with their respective embassies.

Business of bearing

 * The package starts from 18 lakh, goes up to 115 lakh for an Indian couple. There are customised packages, too.
* Surrogacy consultants provide surrogates, IVF specialists, 
counsellors, boarding and lodging for the couple as well as 
surrogates, medical care, egg and sperm donors, and even arrange tour packages.
* A Caucasian donor charges $15,000. An Indian donor charges 
anywhere from Rs40,000 to Rs75,000 per attempt. For an egg donor, apart from her looks, her religion, education and medical 
history matter.
* Sperm donors charge Rs1,000 to Rs10,000, depending on their educational qualification.
* A surrogate mother is paid around Rs10,000 per month during pregnancy and Rs2.5 lakh to Rs3 lakh at the time of delivery.
* Surrogacy consultants get Rs1 lakh to Rs1.5 lakh per case as 
commission.

For more detail visit :- http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?programId=10350696&tabId=13&contentId=11699516&BV_ID=@@@

Surrogacy Australia Conference

WSC (Wyzax Surrogacy Consultants) was one of the biggest sponsors of Surrogacy Australia Conference held in Melbourne, Australia on 26th & 27th May’2012. This was a world level conference with the primary objective of disseminating knowledge to Intended Parents on various aspects of Surrogacy. There was also a lot of focus on the country-wise legalities associated with surrogacy, with special discussion on the Austrtalian laws. We were given a really warm welcome by the Australian IPs who thronged our conference stall in large numbers & were a great audience to all our presentations & debates. We thank our Australian friends for giving us such a great opportunity to present ourselves, & for showing an overwhelming post conference response. Here are some of the photographs & videos to be shared with one & all!

MATERNITY WARDS Renting wombs has been Corporatised

MATERNITY WARDS Renting wombs has been corporatised, moving out of mom-and-pop clinics to multispecialty hospitals and homes for surrogates

I have twin babies, “says class fourth dropout Reshma Sheikh (name changed), 21, struggling to string four words together in English. Sheikh is 12-weeks pregnant with twins and like many new mums, fervently prays for her babies' health each day. She eats healthy, takes her multivitamins and folic acid pills with clockwork precision, and gets all her tests and ultrasounds done on the prescribed date.

More than love for the newborns, it's doing her job well that helping Sheikh stick to her regulated lifestyle. For having two babies will get her an additional R1 lakh, over the R2.5 lakh she's getting for renting her womb to an Israeli couple. If it's a Caesarean section, she gets another R50, 000.

“A foreigner man took my pictures and then came with his wife. I agreed to have their baby because I wanted to help them and use the money for my daughter. I left school when my father died when I was 10, but I want her to learn to use a computer and become someone,“ says Sheikh, hugging her two-year-old girl Nafisa (name changed) close, who is just with her for the day.

Her daughter's first computer will come from Sheikh's putting her life on hold to spend close to a year at a surrogacy home, the first of its kind in India, away from her Taimur Nagar home near Maharani Bagh, where her husband lives and runs a second-hand junk shop. She says she doesn't really mind the separation, as she gets better food and care here than at the home.
“I miss my family but they visit every weekend and at times, Nafisa stays over.
But more than the money, I'm looking forward to going home,“ she says.
ORDER, A LA CARTE Surrogacy in India has finally been corporatised, moving out of small momand-pop clinics ruled by the buyer's market to companies that offer fixed prices to surrogates for each eventuality and ensure medicare and delivery at an empanelled multi-specialty hospital, such as Max Super-Speciality, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the Fortis Group of Hospitals. Apart from getting paid and treatment costs, surrogates are put up in a home where their boarding and lodging is taken care of.

Sheikh is one of six women living away from their families in one such surrogacy home in West Delhi's Janakpuri, run by Wyzax Surrogacy Consultants (WSC), which offers all surrogacy solutions, including a home for the surrogates, legal consultancy, IVF treatment and delivery.
“Having the women live together helps us monitor their health, nutrition and hygiene aspects more closely,“ says Vivek Kohli, director, Wyzax Surrogacy Consultants, which diversified from medical tourism to concentrate on surrogacy two years ago. “We set up our first home in Delhi less than 18 months ago and 10 couples have already taken babies home. We have a database of over 80 surrogates and an average of 50 queries a month, 90% of which are from foreigners,“ says Kohli.
“Apart from the money paid for the delivery, we spend an R1.5 lakh on their food, medical care and lodging. On an average, they stay here for 10-11 months, “says Jagatjeet Singh, the director in charge of the home where Sheikh lives.
“We group them together depending on their cultural and eating preferences, as a vegetarian may not want to eat with a meat-eater. Their families can visit them whenever they like and the women can go home, but we discourage home visits in the first trimester, which is the critical phase of a pregnancy.“ Apart from Janakpuri, Wyzax Surrogacy Services have a home in Loni and another near Ganga Ram Hospital, and oneroom homes in Hari Nagar for women who want to stay with their families.
LIVING OFF ON RENT Like Sheikh, all the five other women at the Janakpuri home are married, with children, an essential pre-requisite for signing up as children are a sign of “proven fertility“. Palam Colony-resident Sushma Ravi, (name changed), 24, has two children -Varun, 6, and Seema, 2 -and is here with her extended family's blessing. “We discussed it at home -I live in a joint family -and everyone supported me because it is a daan (good deed) to help someone in need. It will also pay for my children's education,“ says Ravi. “Our son goes to an `English School' that costs R2, 500 a month, and next year his sister will join him. We are doing it for our children, and everyone knows except my father, who does not understand these scientific advances,“ says her husband Inder Ravi, 32, who works as an electrician.
For Parveen (who goes by a single name), 30, money would mean a taxi for her husband Suresh. “He's a driver and works for others. If we get our taxi, he can set up business and give a better life to our boys, who are 10 and 7,“ she says.
Does she miss them? “Of course I do, we all do, but life here is not bad. We sit and chat and watch TV all day. I can think of a life a lot worse, “says Parvesh.
And will they miss the bay they are carrying? “Not at all, the baby's not mind to keep,“ shrugs Sushma.