Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Why We Chose Surrogacy India

For an openly gay couple living in Australia, the options when it comes to starting a family are very limited. For all the freedom we enjoy as tax paying Australian citizens, we are far from equal on many fronts when it comes to the civil liberties enjoyed by our heterosexual counterparts. That is all I will say on that topic for now. This post is about our wonderful clinic Surrogacy India, Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash and not the Australian government and their outdated laws!


First a quick recap:

When Darren and I eventually met on the same page of our family's story, we seriously started looking at what available options there were for us to become parents. One of our closest and dearest friends, whose son we are god parents to offered to be our surrogate and the research phase began. After a few months we decided that this was not a road we wanted to venture down. Beside being fraught with hair raising twists and turns, our friendship was not something we wanted to jeopardise. We then contacted Growing Generations in LA but MY LORDY THE COST!!!

Thailand was considered as an option, as well as two clinics in India. This is the quick introduction to our story and as you know, we chose Surrogacy India. After receiving personal feedback from two Australian couples who had already been through a cycle with Surrogacy India our first email was sent to Dr Sudhir - possible@surrogacyindia.com
From the very beginning, Dr Sudhir was open, honest and forthright in his replies to our questions, of which there were many. We often repeated ourselves just to make sure we understood exactly what we were getting into and we left no stone unturned. Literally! We both had no hesitation in proceeding with SI and proceeded to have our medical tests done and application forms completed to send to Mumbai.

Dr Sudhir and the entire SI team make you feel so at ease and comfortable with the process from start to finish (so far for us that is) from enrollment, selecting your egg donor, surrogate and even arranging your hotels, transfers and sightseeing via their recommended travel agent Amit Kulkarni, mumbai@exploreindya.net if you wish. On arrival at our hotel in Mumbai we were met by a beautiful arrangement of flowers and a welcome card from the doctors.

Our meeting at Lilavati Hospital was great. Both Dr Sudhir and Dr Yash were warm and welcoming and so are the staff at SI's clinic in Bhandup West. While everyone who undertakes starting their family with the help of an overseas clinic would agree it is not a bump free journey, far from it is some cases. This is the case regardless of your clinic of choice and the country one travels to. Some people have a smoother journey than others and we can not explain why.
It is a journey that opens ones eyes on many levels. Meeting our surrogate and her husband, meeting the wonderful people who have made our dream a reality and the welcoming people in India who have made such an impression on us. I could not have imagined at the time we started this blog, shortly after reading a book detailing the story of many gay dads and their families that we, your average (OK not average but hey) normal (again what is normal) couple would be months away from the most wonderful, amazing, awe inspiring time in our shared life. If you would like to chat with us regarding our experience or to start the ball rolling yourselves, we are more than happy to do so. Our email address is johnnyanddarren@gmail.com.

We can not express in words our gratitude to Dr Yash, Dr Sudhir, Dr Pai, Dr Soni and everyone else who has made this possible for us. It is without hesitation that we recommend Surrogacy India and encourage you to contact them if you too are considering starting your family via surrogacy in India.

http://www.surrogacyindia.com/

possible@surrogacyindia.com

To end, our latest photo from SI showing our beautiful surrogate's pregnant belly at 26 weeks!

4 comments:

  1. OMG she is growing! Gorgeous, She's carrying low - maybe it is a Noddy rather than a Nodette (but I think that's just an old wives tale).

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  2. What an amazing story. Have fun getting ready for the baby!

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  3. Thanks for sharing your story. We met w Growing Generations a few years ago and had sticker shock too. I thought that surely it must come with a pre-paid college education at those prices! Congrats on your growing baby! I love the profile pics showing your surrogates increasing girth! It'll be fun to have those photos lined up next to one another as you remember this journey years from now. Keep em coming.

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  4. So, without quoting any exact figures, how much are the savings from using Surrogacy India vs Growing Generations? 50% less, 25% less, 15% less?

    My husband and I would also like to pursue the surrogacy route and we are becoming more and more intrigued by overseas surrogacy. But, after factoring in the travel and lodging, etc. How much money will overseas surrogacy actually save?

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