Cross Border Surrogacy

Cross-border legal and ethical problems has recently become a concern for Indian surrogacy sector especially after a Thai surrogate mother bore twins and the Australian parents took the healthy child and left the one with Down syndrome behind in Thailand.

Surrogacy is having another woman bear a child for someone else. Surrogacy in India and its increasing popularity has increased the movement of couples towards the country for assistance. However, the thriving business comes with risks of to devious online brokers, questionable private clinics, thriving underground market.

Why cross-border arrangements are risky?

In different countries, laws are different even medical practices, customs or codes of ethics. Looking at the positive aspects of surrogacy, it empowers women to choose whether to participate and gain financial compensation for their valued service. Surrogacy also permits otherwise childless men and women to have children.

In vitro fertilization is fertilization in a laboratory by mixing sperm with eggs surgically removed from an ovary followed by uterine implantation. IVF in Raipur offers assistance to the couples with egg donation, IUI and other fertility techniques.

Most common are two types of “traditional surrogacy” where the surrogate is the biological mother and the sperm is from the intended father or a donor. The other four types are “gestational surrogacy” where the surrogate is unrelated to the baby with the egg coming from the intended mother or donor, and the sperm is from the intended father or donor. When both the egg and sperm are from donors, the baby is genetically unrelated to the surrogate, the intended mother or the intended father. In addition, the actual parentage is often undisclosed or unknown.

Australia and the United States, relevant laws vary by state or province and type of surrogacy. For example, while New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia permit altruistic surrogacy and Arizona, Michigan and Nebraska forbid surrogacy— California, Connecticut and Massachusetts are surrogate-friendly, making them magnets for couples from other places with stringent anti-surrogacy laws.

How to go about surrogacy in India?

Generally, the couples considering surrogacy option are not sure how to go about the process, from where to start or who to consult. They might find it difficult to list down authentic surrogacy clinics from the list of numerous faux and dead links all over the internet which might lead them nowhere. For them, there are few things they should consider before selecting a particular clinic.

1.      Ensure that you establish a direct contact with the doctor and not through any agencies.

2.    Read the success stories of the particular clinic you are considering for surrogacy assistance.

3.    Find out whether the doctor writes blogs for the patients.

4.    Try to resolve your queries and question everything before deciding. (Ask about how surrogate would be arranged? Egg donation process?)

5.     Calculate the cost and compare it with other clinics.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Obstetrician & IVF Specialist

(MS, DNB, FMAS, DRM - Germany)

MBBS - Lady Harding Medical College - New Delhi

MS - Obstetrics and Gynecology (PGI - Rohtak)

DNB - Obstetrics and Gynecology

FMAS - World Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons

DRM - Diploma in Reproductive Medicine (Germany)

Fellow in IVF & Embryology – (USA)

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Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

(Mata Laxmi Nursing Home)

Anupam Nagar, Near T.V. Tower, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) India

Phone:  +91- 771- 4052967, +91- 771- 4053285 Mobile:  +91- 9770997645, +91- 9329630455

Email - contact@raipurivf.com

Visit Our Websites

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre - Raipur

Low Cost IVF India - Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

Pahlajani Critical Pregnancy Care Centre - Raipur

Surrogacy Regularization in India

Couples across the world, be it India or Australia, wish to expand their progeny. If infertile, they would consider In Vitro Fertilisation, Surrogacy or Adoption as the three options have a child. While thousands of couple journey miles and miles to find the most apt surrogacy clinic that matches their criteria, the surrogacy industry bloats with both right and wrong constraints. My opinion is not contrary to those who criticise the unregulated surrogacy sector in India. Anything unregulated is dangerous. Voids in surrogacy laws are filled with exploitation of surrogate mothers, reaping wrongful advantage of commercialized sector and compromising quality of medical procedure. Such voids are harmful even for the doctors who are genuinely helping couples with infertility are suspected of bending the laws. These reputed doctors have repeatedly become the victims to calumny.

Recently, Union Minister for Health, Dr Harsh Vardhan's wrote an editorial, published on The Hindustan Times, about surrogacy titled 'Right to motherhood, right to a mother'. In his article, he discusses how the unregulated surrogacy industry in India poses a great threat to the country's poor, disenfranchised women, who are compelled to become surrogate mothers to battle poverty. He writes: 

"A woman’s body goes hormonal change as she is prepared for intrauterine insemination or intra-cervical insemination or, less commonly, intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection or in-vitro fertilisation. She is also put through many other risks. For instance, under the jungle raj that prevails in this trade, the testing of the donor for various diseases is mostly absent. Also, there is wide ignorance of the fact that the chances of conception through artificial insemination are at best 35% and that too for women under 30."

My thoughts echo with Dr Vardhan’s on surrogacy. There are human rights activists, who have spontaneously displayed their rage over the issue. We, at Pahlajani Surrogacy Care, not only obey the rules but ensure that every surrogate mother gets the best care.

Surrogacy Regularization in India

Surrogacy homes ensure monitored care of surrogate mothers throughout the pregnancy, for them to incubate the fertilized eggs of infertile couples. The day surrogacy care opened the doors of commercialization in India that added gross benefit to countries exchequer. However, the lucrative trend bought addition responsibilities for doctors to ensure finest services to both medical tourists and surrogate mothers. Unlike other clinics, which were brought under the legal scanner for scrimping on surrogate pay,Pahlajani IVF Clinic ascended towards safeguarding the rights of surrogate under the legal norms of the country.  

Sizable surrogacy programmes in Pahlajani IVF Clinic recruits women suitable to become a carrier for infertile couples. The clinic ensures legitimate incentive to surrogates against a yearlong benevolence of a surrogate. In the latest crafted legislation of Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi ensures notarized agreement between prospective surrogate and applicant couple to ensure the safeguard of interests of both. With monitored nurturing to assure smooth pregnancy, Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center ensures after pregnancy checkups for healthy living of a surrogate.

We wait for the surrogacy bill to be tabled this winner session of parliament.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Obstetrician & IVF Specialist

(MS, DNB, FMAS, DRM - Germany)

MBBS - Lady Harding Medical College - New Delhi

MS - Obstetrics and Gynecology (PGI - Rohtak)

DNB - Obstetrics and Gynecology

FMAS - World Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons

DRM - Diploma in Reproductive Medicine (Germany)

Fellow in IVF & Embryology – (USA)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

(Mata Laxmi Nursing Home)

Anupam Nagar, Near T.V. Tower, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) India

Phone:  +91- 771- 4052967, +91- 771- 4053285 Mobile:  +91- 9873083334, +91- 9329630455

Email - contact@raipurivf.com

Visit Our Websites

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre - Raipur

Low Cost IVF India - Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

Pahlajani Critical Pregnancy Care Centre - Raipur

Why Surrogacy In India is Debated?

An Australian baby born to a surrogate Indian mother was abandoned in India. It has highlighted some tension in India as well as Australia. The news hit the headlines after the Australian parents abandoned the twin because they wanted just the one child and were unprepared for the birth of twins.

The Australian High Commission in India tried persuasion and confirmed the veracity of the reports, but could not help because surrogacy is a personal matter. Indian Surrogacy sector has always been under media target for multiplicity of reasons. The Australian couple’s decision to fly away without the child raked another controversy.

Such cases have made surrogacy a debatable issue in India. Sometimes, it is some surrogacy clinics, some doctors or the commissioning parents, who have often gathered flak for their wrong practices and decision. Surrogacy, if practiced through right means without shortchanging or cheating anyone, can be a boon for human beings to gift their reproductive capabilities. Women in 

India agree to become gestational surrogates with dual reasons, to earn money for supporting their families and to help the couples in completing their families.

It is often perceived as exploitation of women working in surrogacy industry. Reproduction is a gift and women offering help to someone to share the gift. IVF in India and IVF in Raipur has been an example of successful surrogacy assistance throughout the years. The fact cannot be denied that there is an urgent need to regularise the sector for transparent ART procedure. Tight laws and strong legislation would restore faith of both surrogate mothers and commissioning parents in the process. Recently, the Australian Federal Circuit Court Chief Judge John Pascoe has called for a national enquiry into international commercial surrogacy. 

Commercial surrogacy was made legal in India in the year 2002. Looking at the high success rate and the number of doctors righteously working to help the couples, the commercial surrogacy is both beneficial for surrogates and couples.

There is an increase in global infertility rate and couples want to have babies with their own genes. Legal landscape surrounding surrogacy in India is cultivated on child-protection perspective. It was the day in 2002 on which surrogacy was legalized in India, when legal authorities started striving to push the sector on legal tracks.

India is abode for thousands of surrogate mothers, who are bearing children for Indian as well as foreign childless couples. The sector has widened its horizon in years, adding new criterions to safeguard the rights of surrogate mothers in India, recipient couples and the children born through surrogacy.

Throughout the years many questions are raised about surrogacy in India. Be it the reputed news dailies, or channels, the debate continues over the surrogacy as unregularised sector. This sometimes becomes the reason for infertile couple to question the legitimacy of the process and think whether surrogacy is India would safeguard legal rights or not. 

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has continued reassessing the surrogacy laws to plug the loopholes and form robust guidelines.

Later, the original Assisted Reproductive Technology Billwas drafted in 2008 with an aim to regulate surrogacy in India. The bill defines the responsibilities and duties of a surrogate mother, those seeking her services and the Indian facilities that provide such services.

Again in 2010, the ART Bill was redrafted to provide sufficient protection for surrogate mothers. The decision was taken after the Planning Commission recommended substantive changes in the legislation and advised the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) against pushing the draft Bill till the process of consultations was satisfactorily concluded. 

If the bill is passed, the foreigners seeking a surrogate in India will have to provide documentary proof that they would be able to take the child back to their country. They must also appoint a local guardian who will be legally responsible for the surrogate till the child is handed over to its parents. The draft bill would outlaw surrogacy by a relative who is not from the same generation as the woman who intends to keep the baby.

Few days back, the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) formulated rules and regulations on surrogacy and formed a committee to monitor. Under the newly formed rules, MMC has the power to suspend the license of the doctor guilty of malpractice.

The concerns with regard to the unregulated industry, unethical practices, especially lack of protection of the surrogate women’s health and rights, sex selection, lack of employment opportunities, and other health and rights issues of children born through surrogacy arrangements, and issues related to their citizenship are being addressed, and the ministry has been making strides in regularizing surrogacy. 

The bills are formed with a view to protect and safeguard the rights and health of the women who undergo these ART procedures, surrogates, egg donors and of the children born through these techniques. 

Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs formed new guidelines pertaining to surrogacy. The seven revised guidelines ensured protection of rights of surrogate, recipient parents and the child born through surrogacy. Through the guidelines, it was ensured that the couples seeking surrogacy assistance inIndia are not in any kind of dilemma about the process. The contract is signed between the surrogate and the recipient couple to ensure protection of rights. Therefore, the Indian ministry continues to revise and reassess the laws surrounding surrogacy consider the high surrogacy success rate.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Obstetrician & IVF Specialist

(MS, DNB, FMAS, DRM - Germany)

MBBS - Lady Harding Medical College - New Delhi

MS - Obstetrics and Gynecology (PGI - Rohtak)

DNB - Obstetrics and Gynecology

FMAS - World Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons

DRM - Diploma in Reproductive Medicine (Germany)

Fellow in IVF & Embryology – (USA)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

(Mata Laxmi Nursing Home)

Anupam Nagar, Near T.V. Tower, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) India

Phone:  +91- 771- 4052967, +91- 771- 4053285 Mobile:  +91- 9770997645, +91- 9329630455

Email - contact@raipurivf.com

Visit Our Websites

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre - Raipur

Low Cost IVF India - Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

Pahlajani Critical Pregnancy Care Centre - Raipur

Why Surrogacy in India?

Infertility is one of the biggest health issues faced by people today. Around 20-25 per cent women of child bearing age in India are obese. This increases the chances of them suffering from PCOS. There are multiple interventions available to treat infertility, IVF being the most advanced. In Indian, the medical equipment industry has also spurred growth. Low cost surrogacy in Raipur and IVF in Raipur has become an option for lot of couples in India and in abroad to have their children through surrogacy.

In India, modernity has trampled over traditional taboos. It is proven by the fact that none of the family members, even in-laws, of the surrogates interviewed in Hyderabad objected to their decision as long as it brought returns.

Surrogacy involves the carrying of an embryo and the subsequent birthing of a baby by one woman, referred to as the surrogate, for another individual or couple. There are two primary types of surrogacy - traditional and gestational. 

With gestational surrogacy, because the sperm and the egg both come from the intended child's biological parents, the surrogate will not be biologically related to the child and is only used for carrying purposes. This can be of extreme importance to many parents.

Using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), it typically takes between three and five days before the embryo develops in the lab before it can be implanted into the uterus of the surrogate. Once the surrogate has been impregnated, she will then carry the embryo until the time of the child's birth. Low cost surrogacy  has given a chance to many couples for starting their families.

Because many women are capable of producing healthy eggs, yet are not able to become pregnant, they are ideal candidates to choose a gestational surrogate, as are those who may be able to become pregnant but have a history of miscarriage. 

What is Egg Donation?

A woman desiring to be an egg donor provides several eggs during one cycle to the intended parents to help them create their child. Egg donation is highly desirable for intended parents, regardless of whether the intended mother or a gestational surrogate will ultimately carry the pregnancy because the donated eggs belong solely to the intended parents immediately when the doctor harvests them from the egg donor’s ovaries. The egg donor has no claim or control over the eggs or resulting embryos, regardless of whether they will be fertilized with the sperm of the intended father or donor sperm, and regardless of whether the resulting embryos will be transferred to the uterus of the intended mother or a gestational surrogate.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Obstetrician & IVF Specialist

(MS, DNB, FMAS, DRM - Germany)

MBBS - Lady Harding Medical College - New Delhi

MS - Obstetrics and Gynecology (PGI - Rohtak)

DNB - Obstetrics and Gynecology

FMAS - World Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons

DRM - Diploma in Reproductive Medicine (Germany)

Fellow in IVF & Embryology – (USA)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

(Mata Laxmi Nursing Home)

Anupam Nagar, Near T.V. Tower, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) India

Phone:  +91- 771- 4052967, +91- 771- 4053285 Mobile:  +91- 9873083334, +91- 9329630455

Email - contact@raipurivf.com

Visit Our Websites

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre - Raipur

Low Cost IVF India - Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Centre

Pahlajani Critical Pregnancy Care Centre - Raipur

Raipur - Steadily Emerging as Fertility Destination

How surrogacy became popular in Chhattisgarh? 

The journey of infertile couples end in Raipur to seek surrogacy assistance after Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center provided services fertility assistance with in-house embryologist and IVF/ICSI services. With rare combination of state-of-the-art medical infrastructure and potential IVF and surrogacy options in Raipur, it has gradually fueled the international demand. Raipur can be termed as a bastion for couples wanting to ply their gametes at cheaper rates. With low traffic frequency rates, uber medicinal and infrastructural at hospitals, Raipur has become one of the favorite destinations for foreigners wanting to undergo fertility treatment.

Dedicated team of doctors and devoted surrogate mothers attracted more and more couples every year to Raipur for IVF. Slowly but steadily, Raipur has emerged as a destination for fertility tourism. It is among one of the rapidly developing cities in country, the burgeoning idea of medical tourism parallelly has caught the imagination fertility tourists living in geographically dispersed cities towards the state.

It was observed that medical tourists were more liberal than ever for undergoing treatment in Raipur, after several infertile couples from USA, Europe, Africa and even neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Afghanistan came here it to find the cure. Success stories of the IVF and surrogacy in Raipur has put the doubts of couples to rest, who are otherwise skeptical about the treatment because of the obvious complications associated to it. Also, the cheap IVF treatment offered in Raipur has warded off the discomfort of pocket burning fees demanded in the first world countries. Visit counts of tourists tripping Raipur has multiplied in past one decade, with most of them returning with assured pregnancy results. The city has won an international recognition after high ratio of infertile couples was blessed with children.

The day commercial surrogacy was declared legal in India it also opened the flood gates of all the inhibitions related to surrogacy and IVF in the country. After facing a tough rebound from less liberal countries, medical tourism has emerged as a successful intersection of inexpensive and medical infrastructure in Raipur. In years, the city has witnessed high influx of tourists seeking medical care willing to travel the tribal land. Skewed population distribution in metros, and commercialized health care has locomoted the infertile tourists towards Raipur. The infertility hospitals have been able to preserve their appeals for assuring best treatment to patients. A taboo associated with IVF and surrogacy is dying a fast death after Raipur was appended to the list of best known IVF and surrogacy destinations.

Fertility problems can have a devastating emotional impact on couples. Some couples will conceive naturally, in time, but for those who do not, the pain and loss can be immense, and have a sudden and significant negative impact on relationships. Infertility is a multi-layered and complex phenomenon, and a number of issues are involved for the people living with it, as it spans the biological, emotional, physical, social, financial and psychological aspects of lives and relationships. Couples going through the treatment journey can feel stigmatised because of their infertility, that it is still a taboo subject, which makes them feel somehow they have failed.

Their reasons for not having children are varied, often deeply personal – and sometimes, circumstantial. Around 20 per cent of pregnancies end in miscarriage – and yet most women never reveal they have had one. We find out how couples have tried to deal with their grief and meet a pioneering doctor who is looking for solutions to recurrent problems.

Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center is committed to bring world-class services in assisted reproduction including IVF in Raipur and IVF for Odisha people and other adjoining states. For low cost IVF in Raipur, comparatively higher surrogacy rate Pahlajani IVF Center provides comprehensive services in IUI, IVF-ET, ICSI, Blastocyst, IVF treatment, egg donation, surrogate motherhood, male infertility treatment, semen banking, embryo freezing, sexual psychological problem, PCOS, MESA, PESA, TESA, Hormone Analysis, Laproscopic surgery, Hysteroscopy surgery, laser assisted hatching, and embryo biopsy.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Website

http://www.raipurivf.com/

http://www.pahlajanipregnancycare.com/

http://lowcostivfindia.com/

Email

drpahlajaniraipur@gmail.com

Surrogacy and Adoption in India

Surrogacy 

Adoption and surrogacy are the two options to bring a child into the family.

The desire for a genetic link and increasing desire of prospective parents to monitor the child's prenatal care and medical history has made surrogacy a more preferred option.

The parents wanting a child through surrogacy need to go through a few steps,

1. Locating the surrogacy clinic,
2. Screening and working with an appropriate surrogate mother,
3. Medically and psychologically examination of surrogate,
4. Establishing a legal contract, and
5. Finally transferring embryos to the surrogate's uterus and confirming the pregnancy.

Adoption

For those parents who simply yearn for a child—genetically related or not—adoption can be both a compassionate and enriching experience. In fact, many parents choose adoption precisely so that they might provide a better family life not only for themselves, but also for the adopted child whose need, after all, is apparent.

Below are the seven stages of adoption in India as defined by Central Adoption Resource Authority, Ministry of Women and Child Development,

1.  Registration
2.  Pre-adoption Counselling and Preparation of the PAP(s)
3.  Home Study and Other requirements
4.  Referral and Acceptance
5.  Pre-adoption foster care
6.  Legal Procedure
7.  Follow up visits and post-adoption services

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Your First Meeting With Surrogate - What You Need to Ask?

Your first meeting with a woman who would carry your baby for next nine months can be awkward. You might have spent meticulous efforts to form a massive checklist of questions, like:

“Do you smoke?”

“Are you sexually active?”

But these are not the right questions to be asked on first meeting. Don’t worry, your doubts would be cleared after the surrogate’s medical and psychological exams, and you’ll be made aware of them by a professional.

When you sit down face-to-face with a potential gestational carrier, try to empathize with what she’s going through. After a huge amount of deliberation and soul searching, she’s decided to do something incredibly generous, terrifically inconvenient, and more than a tiny bit risky, for a virtual stranger. She is also nervous about the meeting, you need to ease her.

1. Why did you become a surrogate?

Although her weak financial stability might be the reason, but it can never be the only reason. Yes, money is important but with all a surrogate goes through, she’s going to earn that cash, and it is a limited sum. No one’s getting rich as a gestational surrogate, so it’s a safe bet she has bigger motives.

2. What were your other pregnancies like?

You will know all the medical information about the surrogate and her previous pregnancies from her medical examination report. But by asking this question you show some curiosity and empathy towards her. It can be a good start to build a good relationship. By knowing small details about her cravings and small needs, you’ll know just what to put in her care package.

3. How do your friends and family feel about you being a surrogate?

Surrogate mother needs support as it is both physically and emotionally demanding. If you assure her of becoming a good support and appreciate what an amazing thing she’s doing, then she would be happy throughout her pregnancy.

4. Will you be comfortable if we assist you with doctor’s appointments and in delivery room?

Most surrogates will fully anticipate and welcome your participation in the process, but raising the issue in a polite and respectful manner will set the right tone for when those intimate moments inevitably arise.

5. What kind of communication would you like to maintain after the birth?

Some surrogates and intended parents want to stay in close touch. It’s important to reiterate that your surrogate will have no legal rights to your child. Once your baby is born, you are well within your rights to cut off all 

contact with the surrogate and never see her again.

Once your child is old enough to understand how he or she came into the world, they’ll likely be curious about who their surrogate was, so it helps if you’ve kept up the relationship.

6. What are your concerns about us or this process?

You never know what your surrogate may be thinking or how you may come across to her. She might have a special request that’s very important to her or a fear she’s working to get over.

Let her know that her concerns are important to you, and in case she does have a vastly different idea of how the birth should go, it’s better to find out now rather than a trimester or two into the pregnancy.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

10 Must Read Books for Surrogates and Intended Parents

1.  Surrogate Motherhood and the Politics of Reproduction by Susan Markens (NON FICTION)

The book is about the social construction of surrogacy in the United States and debates surrounding two bills on surrogacy in 1992, one in California and one in New York, and at the way the feminist lobby and other factors shaped two very different outcomes. In New York surrogacy was eventually outlawed, while in California it is leniently practiced.

2.  Surrogate Motherhood: International Perspectives by Shelley Day Sclater (NON FICTION)

This edited collection takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject of surrogacy, including perspectives from law, psychology, anthropology and social work.

3.  Surrogacy Was the Way: Twenty Intended Mothers Tell Their Stories by Zara Griswold (NON FICTION)

It is a collection of surrogacy journeys of mothers. Women becoming surrogates should read this book as it will be helpful in contracting a surrogate and even to those interested in becoming a surrogate for the insider perspective it provides.

4.  The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception by Debora L. Spar (NON FICTION)

This book gives the facts about commercial surrogacy and some interesting insights into the global market.

5.  Birthing a Mother: The Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self by Elly Teman (NON FICTION)

Book narrates the personal experiences of surrogates and intended mothers. It breaks many common myths about surrogacy and about relationship between participants in gestational surrogacy arrangements.

6.  Surrogate Motherhood: Conception In The Heart (Institutional Structures of Feeling) by Helena Ragoné (NON FICTION)

The writer looks at traditional surrogates-- women who use their own egg and are inseminated with the intended father's sperm. The analysis sheds light on the way surrogacy changes established notions of kinship, family, and motherhood.

7. Due Date by Nancy W. Wood (FICTION)

Surrogate mother Shelby McDougall just fell for the biggest con of all—a scam that risks her life and the lives of her unborn twins.

Shelby McDougall, recent college graduate, is facing a mountain of student debt and carting a burden she'd like to exorcise. But Jackson and Diane have their own secret agenda, one that has nothing to do with diapers and lullabies.

8. Womb for Rent by Amanda Brian (FICTION)

It is two books in one.  It has stories of a wealthy business tycoon Derek Cameron and his own resident pet sitter Talli Paxton, and Jenna McBay, who owns a bookstore and wants to wed a man of means.

9. Her Sister's Baby by Janice Kay Johnson (FICTION)

Colleen will do anything for her sister Sheila, including having her baby. Sheila's husband, Michael, wants a baby, too. When Colleen offers to be a surrogate for his wife, he's deeply grateful.

10. And Baby Makes More: Known Donors, Queer Parents, and Our Unexpected Families by Susan Goldberg, Chloë Brushwood Rose (FICTION)

(Courtesy: www.goodreads.com)

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Does obesity reduce chance of getting pregnant with donor egg?

According to a new study conducted by Washington University of Medicine, women who use donor eggs to become pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF), those who are obese are just as likely to become pregnant as normal weight women. The study showed that these complications are restricted to women trying to conceive naturally. Obesity doesn't significantly affect women trying to conceive through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

However, the women are advised to reduce weight before pregnancy in any type of conception, including ovum donation. Being obese during pregnancy can have a major impact on your health and your baby's health. The best way to protect your health and your baby's wellbeing is to lose weight before you become pregnant. By reaching a healthy weight, you increase your chances of conceiving naturally and reduce your risk of the problems associated with being overweight in pregnancy.

Obesity is not an influential factor when it comes to analyzing the differences in the rates of miscarriages or live births among obese women who use donor eggs. Investigators aren’t sure whether the quality of a woman’s eggs or her uterus is most affected by obesity. As a result, several studies have focused on donor egg recipients to provide some clues.

Many IVF programs have arbitrary body mass index (BMI) restrictions that help them determine whether women can receive treatment. These cutoffs need to be re-examined.

In this analysis, obesity (defined as a BMI over 30) was not associated with a difference in pregnancy rates when compared with pregnancy rates in women with a normal BMI. The data from this study also indicates that obesity was not associated with differences in the rates of miscarriage or live birth among obese women who used donor eggs, when compared with women of normal weight. However, live births and miscarriages were not reported in all of the studies.

Previous studies have stated that obesity reduces chances of spontaneous pregnancy in women. Even if an obese woman gets pregnant, there are high possibilities of her suffering complications. Obesity was not found to be associated with differences in the rates of miscarriage or live birth among obese women who used donor eggs, when compared with women of normal weight.

However, reproductive outcome has affected female obesity. An analysis egg donation treatment shows that female obesity reduced the receptivity of uterus of embryo implantation and thereby compromises reproductive outcome.  

If you are very overweight and you are pregnant, don't try to lose weight during your pregnancy as this may not be safe. Although there are risks associated with being obese during pregnancy, there is no evidence that losing weight while you're pregnant will reduce these risks.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani 

Embryo Donation and Adoption

Embryo Donation is a method of family building, which combines assisted reproductive technology with adoption, so that instead of adopting a baby, infertile couples adopt an embryo. It is a form of third party reproduction, in which couples give their embryos to another couple after successful IVF. This embryo is transferred to recipient mother’s uterus to facilitate pregnancy.

At Pahlajani Test Tube Baby Center, when we perform IVF, young women often produce many eggs. These can be stored, and we do this by freezing them in liquid nitrogen at -196 degree Celsius. If the parents get pregnant they often agree to donate their embryos to other infertile couples, to help them start families.

Therefore, when you undergo in-vitro fertilization, conceive a child and find yourself left with extra embryos, then you can donate your embryos to couples in need.  Couples often freeze their embryos in case they want to expand their family more someday. But, if they decide not to expand their families further, they can donate the remaining embryos to infertile couples.

Embryo donation can be done anonymously or on an open basis. Occasionally, a "semi-open" arrangement is used in which the parties know family and other information about each other, but their real names and locating information are withheld, in order to provide a layer of privacy protection.

Couples who want to donate embryos have two options: They can go through a fertility clinic or an agency, and the experiences are quite different. Interested recipients undergo physical and psychological screening. If it’s a match, the embryos change hands anonymously.

Embryo donation can be carried out as a service of an individual infertility clinic (where donor and recipient families typically live in the local area and are both patients of the same clinic) or by any of several national organizations. The process described below is typical of an "adoption-agency-based" national program.

Genetic parents entering an embryo adoption program are offered the benefits of selecting the adoptive parents from the agency's pool of prescreened applicants. Embryo ownership is transferred directly from the genetic parents to the adoptive parents. Genetic parents may be updated by the agency when a successful pregnancy is achieved and when a child(ren) is/are born. The genetic parents and adoptive parents may negotiate their own terms for future contact between the families.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani

Surrogacy in India Mythology

It was from the period of Mahabharat that surrogacy was practiced started. Not commercial though, but practice of carrying child for intended mother. There are references in Indian mythology to surrogacy, most notably in the legend surrounding Lord Krishna.

Notably, before the advent of modern assisted conception techniques, natural surrogacy was the only means of helping childless women to have children. Later as artificial insemination was accepted, this became the usual means of achieving pregnancy in cases of infertility, being more socially acceptable than the natural way. When assisted conception methods such as invitro fertilization (IVF) become available, it was a method to use the eggs of the women wanting the baby/donor woman and the sperm of her husband/donor male, to create their embryos in vitro and transfer these to a suitable host.

Another story of embryo transfer was regarding the seventh pregnancy of Devaki, by the will of the Lord, the embryo was transferred to the womb of Rohini, the first wife of Vasudev, to prevent the baby being killed by baby Kamsa. Therefore, surrogacy is practiced in India from the time of Mahabharat. 

Surrogacy has been a sensitive issue in India and there is constant controversy over Indian laws to regularise surrogacy sector.

However, unlike countries like Germany and Canada, where surrogacy is outlawed, India has maintained that the surrogacy beneficial for both surrogate mother and intended parents. In United Kingdom, surrogacy is highly regulated and very expensive while in Germany, there have been a few controversial cases.

Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh has dominated its presence by constantly making news about increasing ‘surrogacy tourism’. Surrogacy in India has benefited couples from the world to have babies. Pahlajani IVF Center ensures extraordinary surrogacy journeys of both surrogate mother and intended parents.

Despite knowing that surrogacy is practiced in India since Mahabharat age but still people let the inhibitions grow and attach unnecessary doubts to the entire process. It cannot be ruled out that surrogacy requires having confidence in third person sometimes you meet for the first time but reputed IVF Clinics in India ensure resistance free surrogacy journey in India.

Dr Neeraj Pahlajani