Annapurna Times: C-sections done in surrogate pregnancies before 7 months

While the government has already decided the fate of surrogacy babies born or conceived before the Supreme Court (SC) halted surrogacy services in this country; hospital here are now adopting the risky option of pre-mature caesarean sections.

Hospitals providing surrogacy services to foreign couples are handing over to them babies delivered before they are due, it is learnt. These hospitals are found to be conducting caesarean sections to deliver the babies less than seven months after conception. In one recent instance, an Australian couple had In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) carried out in an Indian surrogate mother on July 19, 2015. Grande City Clinic at Jamal, one of the leading surrogacy service providers in Kathmandu, delivered twin babies through c-section on January 28, 2016, which was exactly six months and nine days after the date of conception.

Likewise, another Australian couple hired an Indian surrogate mother for IVF on August 2, 2015 and the baby was delivered by the same hospital through c-section in the seventh month of pregnancy. There are many instances where such babies have been delivered in the sixth, seventh or eighth month after conception.

The SC on August 25, 2015, decided to halt all surrogacy services in Nepal following some controversy over the practice.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Immigration (DoI) took a decision on October 29, 2015 to allow foreign couples to take home babies born or conceived through surrogacy before the SC's ban on surrogacy. The authorities also provided a nine-month time period for delivery in cases of surrogacy conceptiuon that took place before the SC decision.

According to (DoI), it is not the right authority to decide about c-sections carried out before seven months. "Our job is to provide exit permits for babies conceived or born before the SC decision. We have no authority to enquire about hospital activities concernint surrogacy," said DoI Director General Kedar Neupane.

He, however, said that they started recording IVF dates after receiving complaints that hospitals were bringing in Indian surrogate mothers after carrying out IVF in India once the government here banned the service.

Meanwhile, a source at Grande City Clinic told Republica that conducting delivery in the seventh month or earlier is risky. "We have done c-sections on many surrogate mothers when they wished do so or in case of emergency," said the source, adding that surrogate mothers opt for c-section delivery when they are in a hurry for whatever reason.

According to gynochologist Dr. Bimala Malla, delivery in the sixth or seventh month of pregnancy is considered pre-mature and might pose a challenge just saving the baby. "C-section shouldn't be done except in cases of extreme emergency. In the context of Nepal, it is very difficult to save babies born during the sixth and seventh months, due inadequate infrastructure at the hospitals," she said.

DoI has provided exit permits to 235 surrogate babies to date. It has also sought information from various embassies in Kathmandu on the number of surrogate pregnancies dealth with, but only the Isareli embassy furnished any information in this regard.

The first surrogate baby was born in Nepal in January, 2014. Nepal emerged as a hub for commercial surrogacy after the practice was banned in Thailand and legal complications arose in India. Nepal became a destination for surrogacy mostly for people from Israel, Australia, the US, Spain and Brazil.