| MOTHER OF ALL CONTRACTS
Girl hired to carry pregnancy for another woman
• Earns N.2m compensation
By AGAPTUS
ANAELE
Sunday, March 5, 2006
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Pix : Sun News Publishing
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With a little over N1million, a couple’s five-year
search for the fruit of the womb has become history. Late
last year, the couple smiled home with a bouncing baby boy
delivered normally at the OMNI Advanced Medical Centre in
Lagos.
A single lady in her 30s (names withheld) graciously carried
the pregnancy at the cost of N200, 000, thus ending the couple’s
nightmare.
The N200, 000, Sunday Sun, learnt was compensation for the
lady that carried the pregnancy, while the balance was paid
the medical bills and cost of In vitro Fertilization.
Interestingly, the lady that carried the pregnancy on behalf
of the couple hails from the South Western part of the country
and lives in Lagos, while the couple from the South Eastern
part of the country, resides in the east. But the hospital
ensured anonymity between both parties.
The couple who were referred from the east had indicated their
interest to own a baby through the procedure, following medical
indication that the surrogate mother was unfit to carry a
pregnancy to term.
Sunday Sun learnt that it took the hospital one year from
the time the couple showed interest to secure a match for
the contract.
Another interesting thing is that the couple is not alone
in the search for the fruit of the womb. In the last two years,
over 20 couples have approached the hospital for the same
purpose including three Nigerians resident abroad. However,
only two have had their dreams actualized. Many were unable
to continue because of the cost.
Leader of the medical team that performed the process, Professor
Osato Giwa-Osagie tells the story:
“We have successfully performed a surrogate pregnancy.
We have had two experiences during the last five years. One
was through IVF while the other was through artificial insemination.
The most recent was through IVF.”
How it was done
The carrying mother was referred to us. Somebody had discussed
it when they met and were talking socially about modern fertility.
The person told her that people were doing it, and any one
who accepted the offer would be paid for it, so the lady took
up the offer, but the person telling her about it thought
it was a joke. She asked seriously where such things were
being done, and she worked into this clinic and said that’s
what she wanted to do and that was it.
“First, we ensured that the carrying mother was a healthy
person to avoid complications. She was screened for Hepatitis
and HIV. We also ensured that she was not hypertensive, nor
diabetic. Secondly, we enlightened her about the terms of
the contract. We followed her up to make sure that she did
not develop psychological sequelli. We ensured that the couple
that sought the pregnancy was psychologically ready to accept
the child. This was to ensure that they do not make a change
of mind half way into the arrangement, when somebody is already
pregnant. We also ensured that both parties do not know themselves,”
Giwa-Osagie said.
Baby’s sex
The baby was a boy. It was a normal baby in everyway.
Surrogate parents
The problem was that the woman was badly hypertensive but
controlled on drugs. Again, she was already in her late forties,
so she was advised that it was dangerous for her to carry
pregnancy. So there were two reasons, medical indication and
her age. The husband was okay, but because the marriage was
five years old and they had no child
The surrogate parents don’t live in Lagos. They were
referred to us from the South eastern part of the country.
They are both graduates, self-employed. They are over 45 years
of age. They signed a consent form, which explained what the
contract was all about. The receiving parents also signed
that they have agreed that surrogate pregnancy should be arranged
for them and that they were going to be responsible for the
cost and that they would look after the child to the best
of their knowledge.
The lady that carried the pregnancy lives in Lagos and is
in her mid 30s. She is also educated.
Cost
It is not cheap. For instance, a circle of IVF in Nigeria
at the moment costs between N400, 000 and N800, 000. So, if
you are going to do surrogacy through IVF, that is the cost
you have to bear. In addition, they paid money to the surrogate
mother because that is why she is doing it. From our own experience,
the carrying mother expects to be paid at least N200, 000.
So, when you add all the costs, you will be talking about
N1million plus.
Coordination
The couple was responsible for the medical costs of the person
that carried the pregnancy. They maintained the person for
one year that is during nine months pregnancy and six weeks
after. Some couple brings their wife’s elder sister,
who volunteers to carry the pregnancy, but as a policy, we
usually turn down such person because of the closeness. It
may lead to problems in later years. That is why we insist
on anonymity between the two. What we did was that, when the
surrogate parents have undergone our screening, they were
asked to go and, when we found a surrogate mother, we contacted
them detailing the costs. They came to Lagos and presented
the sample of the husband’s sperm.
Challenges
One is the issue of ensuring that the people are properly
counseled and that they know what they are doing, and they
are stable to go ahead with it. The second is the logistics,
getting people to come over all the way from across the Niger.
How baby was transferred
That part was handled by the social worker, because she was
used to both parties in the preceding months. The procedure
is that the carrying mother is not allowed to carry the baby
for more than 24 hours after delivery, otherwise the problem
of bonding may arise, so the baby was transferred within 24
hours.
Breastfeeding
We suppressed the breastfeeding. We gave the carrying mother
some medicines to suppress the breast secretion, while we
gave the receiving mother drugs to produce breast milk, which
she used in breastfeeding the baby.
Ethics
The fundamental issues here are those of informed consent.
We must not do anything to anybody without letting him or
her know and agreeing to it. That is why the clinician, who
is organizing it, having selected the people involved, withdraws
and allows the social worker to do the remaining part of the
job. The social worker sees people from the behaviour point
of view, and then offers advice. We also ensure that there
is no influence.
Unique
It is unusual, and it requires a lot of organization to get
it right.
Surrogacy
Surrogacy is when a woman carries a pregnancy on behalf of
another. This occurs when you have patient ‘A’
who has infertility and after assessment, it is decided that
what is required is surrogacy and then another person agrees
to carry the pregnancy. There are two approaches to this.
One is for the surrogate mother to agree to be inseminated
with the sperm of the patient’s husband. So you have
Mr. and Mrs. ‘A’ and Miss ‘B’. The
former are the couple that wants a pregnancy by surrogacy
for whatever reason. Miss/Mrs. ‘B’ is the surrogate
mother, that is the person that carries the pregnancy.
Methods
You can impregnate Miss. B with the sperm of Mr. A by injecting
her with the sperm directly. That is what we call artificial
insemination. So you prepare her, you inseminate her and then
she becomes pregnant. At the end of the pregnancy, she hands
over the baby to Mr. and Mrs. A, that’s one arrangement.
The second route is to use Mr. A’s sperm to fertilize
Miss. B’s eggs. So you stimulate Miss. B, collect her
eggs physically and then do In vitro Fertilisation using Mr.
A’s sperm. The resulting embryo is then put back into
Miss B, who is the surrogate mother.
Preference
Some people prefer the first route to do straight forward
insemination, while some insist that you must do IVF, and
then put the embryo back. The important thing is to make sure
that Mr. and Mrs. A are mentally stable and also in their
relationship, because the last thing you want to achieve is
to go through the process and the relationship breaks down.
You must also ensure that the person, who is going to carry
the pregnancy, understands very well that she has decided
to carry the pregnancy and surrender the child after birth.
With good counseling, there shouldn’t be any complication
at all since both parties understand what they are doing.
Confidentiality
Most surrogate mothers do it for money. For ethical reasons,
we don’t allow the two parties to know each other, because
if they do, there may be complications later on. So it is
done anonymously. It is the team that knows both sides, and
the team consists of the clinician, who is the doctor, the
social worker and the IVF embryologist.
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