Granny is surrogate mom	January 2004

At first glance, Ahsa Patel is like any other woman waiting to deliver a baby. But what makes this 43-year-old different from other expectant mothers is the fact that she will not be delivering her child when she goes into labour - she will be delivering her grandchild.

When doctors in the UK said that her daughter, Rekha, could not bear a child, Asha volunteered to be a surrogate mother to bring a smile back to her daughter’s face.

But taking the decision was not easy; admit Asha and her husband Prakash. They feared that the step may “jeopardize the chances of their two other daughters getting married”.

“My daughter’s in-laws are progressive but we were not sure about the kind of reaction we would get from society.” It’s a fear we are still living with, but our daughter’s happiness will help us overcome this,” says Asha, as she goes about her household chores and the prescribed exercise.

“Rekha has normal ovaries but she does not have a uterus. This led doctors in London, where she lives with her husband, to go for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Though there was lot of support from her in-laws, the cost of doing it in the UK-approximately 10,000 pounds- was prohibitive and finding a proper surrogate was tough,” said Prakash.

These difficulties and her daughter’s unhappiness led Asha and Prakash to take the step. “She took a month to make up her mind,” said Prakash, who provided strong support for Asha.

“Normally, the ovary produces only one egg in a month. But, for an IVF, we need multiple eggs. We prepared Asha’s uterus for pregnancy with hormones like estrogen and progesterone. At the same time, her daughter took injections to yield more eggs. After health tests, we tried the first cycle of IVF in May and it failed. In June, the second cycle was tried and out of five embryos transferred into Asha’s uterus, two developed. She is expecting twins in the second week of February”, says Nayna Patel, Asha’s gynecologists.

“It was not just the physical treatment. The patient’s mental state had to keep in mind too, as it was a tough decision. We have got the initial inhabitations out of Asha’s mind and, of course, her daughter’s happiness has been a great motivating factor. Rekha’s in-laws, too, have provided tremendous support,” says Patel.

The babies will have to undergo DNA tests to confirm their genetic parents in order to attain British citizenship. “We are carrying out the legal procedures,” says Prakash.

Asha, meanwhile, is wanting to hear her grandchildren gurgle and her daughter laugh.