This is just to put on record a rare distinction that is unique to the ART community (Specialists in the field of Assisted Reproduction) in india. We successfully achieved the first documented case of gestational surrogacy in May 2006 where the genetic parents were of Chinese origin and the surrogate is a native Indian woman. I have put this on my Blog so it can be documented that the team that had the distinction of helping out this couple was led my me; albeit in a hospital that I am no longer associated with. I was a little disheartened when I recently (March 2007) got hold of a copy of the hospitals annual day magazine & did not find my own name in the title credits for this "hospital achievement". For the bloggers who visit here, the procedure can be explained thus. Mr & Mrs Xiuan Wu(name changed) came to us through the internet with a history
of five failed IVF/ICSI attempts in Singapore. Mrs. Wu had a history of tuberculous endometritis which was treated prior to all her IVF attempts and this cause was attributed to all her failed attempts. Her last treating specialist in Singapore had suggested resorting to gestational surrogacy (hiring a womb in layman's language). This couple relocated to Hyderabad as the husband took up a software contract in that city. The couple contacted almost all the major IVF services in India and selected us to be capable of taking up the challenge of surrogacy after a consultation at our Center for Human Reproduction.
This was a real challenge for our team and we planned an IVF cycle where we transferred half the cultured embryos into Mrs Wu's uterus and the other half into the Surrogates uterus which was primed with hormonal replacement therapy. Needless to say, both the patient's and surrogates menstrual cycles were synchronized using hormonal therapy. The Surrogate conceived and had an uneventful pregnancy. The intended parents were updated regards the growing pregnancy on a fortnightly basis with reports & ultrasound plates. The surrogate mother delivered a healthy baby boy weighing 3.2kg on 19.05.06 at 3:30am. The intended parents went back home with their bundle of joy.
Following this case in May 2006, we have already delivered 8 more surrogate babies & have 7 ongoing pregnancies. The intended parents are from our own country as well as across the globe including the UK, Denmark, Spain, Dubai & Israel. We have learnt a lot from our experiences with Intended Parents & the gestational surrogate mothers. We have had good, bad & ugly experiences with some of the Intended Parents. This led us to help the gestational surrogates introduce a type of partial medical coverage for emergency medical situations in the course of their pregnancy when they sign the contract with the intended parents. We are trying our best to get complete insurance for the gestational surrogates. More on this when we make more progress.
