Made-in-Gujarat babies for 2 US couples

The most powerful country in the world, America, would have been at least two citizens short had it not been for a surrogacy clinic in Anand.

Keri Armstrong, an American, despaired of ever having a baby because liver cirrhosis had forced her to undergo sterilisation when she was 23; besides, her husband, Devon Armstrong, had a diminished sperm count.

In the other case, Bincy George, an NRI living in America, developed cancer in her uterus when she was 26.  For both Keri and Bincy, pregnancy was a desire throttled by medical realities.

But today, as the Armstrongs dote on their newborn twins, they realise that they are holding the evidence of a miracle that the infertility and IVF expert from Anand, Dr Nayna Patel, has so frequently performed.

Similarly, as Bincy and her husband Joseph cherish their infant girl, they share the gratitude that scores of couples from across the world feel for Patel and the surrogate mothers.

“It would have been disastrous for Keri to conceive because of the problems associated with cirrhosis,” Patel said. “As a precaution, she had undergone tubal ligation [female sterilisation] before her marriage. When they approached me, I found that Devon had a problem with his sperm count.”

Patel said she carried out ‘percutaneous epididymal sperm
aspiration’ on Devon. The technique is used to determine sperm count in the event of possible blockage of the vas deferens, the part of the male anatomy that transports the sperm.

After successful treatment, a surrogate mother in Anand gave birth to Keri and Devon Armstrong’s twins, a boy and a girl.  “Despite the medical problems, we wanted to have our own kids and complete the family,”

Keri said. “We could do that with the help of the surrogate mother in Anand.”