A bundle of joy for childless couples

Pune: A late pregnancy, a resultant miscarriage and severely damaged kidneys have shattered Anita Verma's dream of becoming a mother. Doctors have told her she will never bear a child. Friends have told her adoption is the only option. But this 33-year-old finance professional wants her own child.

Anita and her husband Saurabh Verma eventually opted for the surrogacy procedure to get their own baby, early. "If we go through this then baby will be genetically ours. Somewhere in mind it a makes difference that it will be our baby," she says.

Agrees her husband, "The only emotional difference was that we wouldn't be having our baby but the very fact that there was an option to have a baby was a positive emotion for us."

There are many such working couples like the Vermas across India opting for surrogate mothers to have a child.

In Pune alone, Dr Sunita Tandulwadkar - Chief IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation) Consultant and Endoscopist at the Ruby Hall Clinic - has conducted 15 surrogate procedures in the last 18 months. Half of them were cases of working couples unable to conceive.

"Such couples it is very safe to induce them to take out retrieve their eggs, take sperms from spouse and take help of surrogate mother," she says.

The cost of surrogacy is high: the IVF procedure costs up to Rs 80,000 and surrogate mother can charge anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh. But those who have the money, feel it’s worth the cost. "I feel life is incomplete without a baby whether you adopt it or from surrogacy, whatever the method is,” says Anita.

Source: CNN-IBN