Surrogacy Contract Details...Jan. 22-28

I have had a few people ask me about the details of my contract with Kiran Infertility Centre and what it entails. So I thought I would highlight some of details here. The contract is about ten pages long and starts with describing the incident and course of events between William, the surrogate and the clinic. It is then broken down in four sections explaining:

About my clinic...week of Jan. 16-21

I have had a few people asking me about the clinic and Hyderabad. So I thought I would write out my experience with a little more detail.

January News...week of 9-15

Just received emails from Anjani and Dr. Samit. It was really nice to hear from them, especially when they told me that our egg retrieval and embryo transfer is going to happen between the 5-10 of February.

I’m thrilled… I am finally on a countdown before... I need to start counting weeks to see if we become successful with a positive result and.... then a countdown for success of a heartbeat.

I know I am jumping the gun, but I can’t help it! I have always been like this, even when I was doing IVF. I would set myself up and just start counting to my next check.

Fingers and toes crossed!

January 4...back home

January 4… First Week Back Home. Considering William had a few extra days off before heading back to work we decided to catch up with our friends and share our trip adventure with them. It was really nice sharing our experience and it was great to hear how positive and happy they were for us. They already offered babysitting!

I also decided to catch up on the internet. I signed up to Kiran Infertility Center Facebook page. I also joined Fertile Thoughts and Fertility Friends. These two Support and forum groups are great places to meet other intended parents, find information and ask questions.

Also I decided to start this blog that you’re reading now.

Considering everything went positive on our trip to India, I came back with a thirst for more information, I did not want to lose the momentum that was created in India and I also wanted to keep my mind focused. I thought that was better than looking at a calendar every 15 minutes to see when the egg retrieval and embryo transfer is expected.

What do other intended parents do when they return home? I am sure it’s different for everyone. I would really like to know what other intended parents do and think during this time.

January 2 +3...Final Days in Hyderabad

January 2 + 3…Final Days in Hyderabad

Well it’s our last days before we head back to Switzerland.  This means last great India food, a little shopping and getting ready for our 4:15 AM drive to the airport!

Again, Anjani was kind enough to send us a car to finish our tour of Hyderabad. We first headed back to the market in the Old town and picked up a Masala Dabbas which is a spice tray, usually stainless steel with seven removable round containers, lid and a small spoon that fits in the box. I really like these handy trays. When you cook, you open the lid and all of the spices are at your fingertips without you having to rustle around hunting for jars of cumin seeds, cayenne, or cloves, etc. You don’t have to use it only for Indian spices. In fact I got two, one for India spices and one for Asian cooking. I do now wish I got a third for western cooking. It just makes it easy when you need a bunch of spices for a recipe.

We then headed off to Shilpa Ramam to shop the Arts and Crafts village for a few gifts to take back home. It is located near Hi Tech city which is such a contrast to the Old part of town. Shilpa Ramam seems very interesting and I would like to go back and view some of the cultural events that they host.

After a hot and hazy day out we decided to head back to hotel and book a table at the restaurant Kebab E Bahar, for some more black lentils!

We reflected over our week and felt completely different than the day we arrived. I can’t explain fully the transformation that happened to us. I can say we became closer and felt content that we were doing the right thing at the right place. We realized that we had just taken the first step and we were on the road to obtaining our dream of having a family. It felt good and we both went to bed with smiles on our faces that night.

Thank goodness we went to bed early, due to our car picked us up at the hotel at 4:30 A.M. and whisked us to the airport like a mad man. Considering there were hardly any cars on the road, our driver decided to drive like a formula 1 driver. We did arrive at the airport in one piece thankfully and we jumped into the crazy and frantic crowd vying to enter the main terminal.  We checked in, headed to security and went for coffee to wait for our flight to board. 

While we were boarding, we had another security check and unfortunately William lost his ticket for his carry-on bag and was escorted back to the first security check to repeat the whole process again.  He made it back and was able to board on time.  Our first leg to the UK was going to be 11 hours that felt like 30. When are we going to get there!  When we finally landed, we found out that our flight to Geneva was delayed and we also found out a handy tip to figure out how long your flight will be delayed.

Tip: A lovely lady at terminal 5, Heathrow told us if  your flight shows a 1, 7, or 9 in the minutes part of its new time this means that it is not a firm time and could change again. So for example our flight said our new departure time would now be 4:17, which the lovely lady said it meant that it was not confirmed. Sure enough she was right. We did get another posting that said our next new departure time was 5:29, sure enough that was not correct either. It was not until they posted 5:35 did we actually  board our plane back to Geneva. I do not know if this works everywhere but it seems to make sense.

Well that was my week in Hyderabad and now I am back in Switzerland. I still have a lot to say and will update you to the present soon.

January 1, 2012...Sixth Day

Happy new Year Hyderabad!

New Year’s Day in Hyderabad is just as busy and crazy as any other day. Feeling sleepy, lazy and need of a comfort day, we woke up and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for burgers. It was a beautiful and sunny day and we decided to stroll back to the hotel and relax by the pool.

Pool side chatter....

We chatted about our choice in clinics and how I researched for at least a year before I choose Kiran Infertility Center. William wanted to know how I ended up choosing where to go. Which I think is the 64 million rupee question.

We already tried donor eggs in New York, however without success. I underwent IVF three times with no luck. Complications for me were; I just could not get my baby Padding up, no matter what drugs were given to me, what diet I tried, what acupuncture I underwent or any tips or tricks that I read about. Our doctors suggested that we could try again with me or use a surrogate.

Now as my American friends will know, using a surrogate in America is not the easiest and economical choice for surrogacy. First we would have to go to a parent friendly state, such as California. Next we would have to rob a bank. The cost was too high for us and we were being transferred to Hong Kong to boot. So I had to find an alternative way to achieve our dream of having a family.

While I was in Hong Kong I first checked where would be a good place in Asia. My research led me to Thailand.  My first thoughts were great, wonderful country, fantastic people and a short trip from Hong Kong. Now I know there have been many successful transfers and babies have been born to surrogates in Thailand, however it was not for me. My reason was that they have not been doing surrogacy for too long and I felt that the experience was not there. I understand that I could be completely wrong and I am sure there are parents in the world that did their surrogacy in Thailand with great success; it was just my gut feeling that I decided to look elsewhere.

I also dismissed Russia, Georgia, Cyprus, Ukraine and some country in Africa which I cannot remember at the moment. My reasons were a number of things, anywhere from experience of clinics, safety of the country and costs. I was also losing my mind with all the places in the world that could assist me. Where to go? What to do? It's not like you can check with a consumer magazine to see what's new and cutting edge.

Then I remembered when I was in New York that our doctor suggested India. He would not recommend a clinic in India, however he thought that the experience was there and I should look into the options. So I started researching India, which is no easy feat. There must be thousands of clinics in India and the majorities seem to be clustered in Delhi and Mumbai. Also there were clinics in Hyderabad, Chennai and other cities that I no longer remember. However I decided India is where we would try to make our dream of a family come true.

What did I do?

·         I started researching news stories in the USA, Canada, UK, and India and anywhere else I could find.

·         I started reading every blog I could on the internet that related to surrogacy.

·         I joined a few community groups related to surrogacy and trolled through the discussions.

·         I contacted medical tourism sites and inquired about their services in regards to surrogacy.

·         I started contacting clinics and asked a million questions, the ones I was interested in, I requested information about their policies, procedures, prices and contracts.

·          I contacted a law firm in the UK to engage in Indian Surrogacy Law and our legal status to do surrogacy in India.

·         I asked for referrals and talked to other parents who used various clinics in India.

Then…

I took a deep breath, choose three clinics that I felt were right for us and presented all my data for each clinic to William, my mother and a couple who went through surrogacy in California and had twins. I thought this was a good idea, due to you can get so emotionally involved and presenting my findings to other people who would look at it differently that I would give me another insight.

I don’t know if this was right or wrong and I am sure I could have done more and would really love to hear your feedback on how you made your choice.

After all that reflecting we were starving and headed to Syn, located at the Hotel Taj Deccan.  A mixture of Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese flavours.  Sushi and Thai were the choice for the night!





December 31…Fifth Day

New Year’s Eve 2012

How exciting it’s New Year ’s Eve and our last day at the clinic before we head back to Switzerland.

As usual our driver was there to pick us up and whisk William and I to the clinic for one last deposit. I could tell by William’s face that he was happy that this will be the last time he will need to perform on demand, in a cup, in a small room with GQ as reading material. …..enough said about that! Everyone was very friendly and helpful and we wished everyone a happy new year.  We said our good-byes and headed back to the hotel to get ready for New Years.

We decided to celebrate at the Hotel, which was hosting a Bollywood night to bring in the New Year. The celebrations were located on the hotel lawn and pool side, with live entertainment by international dancers, exotic cocktails and an exquisite dinner buffet, dancing and of course fireworks. The weather was perfect and we met such wonderful people that night from all over Hyderabad and India.  It was a wonderful night to celebrate the New Year and hopefully a new beginning of us becoming a family.

I always think each New Year what the year will bring. This year my thoughts went wild! Imagine this year I could actually be a mum. Considering William and I have been trying for over 6 years it was such a wonderful feeling, just to think…this could be the year!

here is the outfit I wore!