Monday 31 October 2011

A beautiful story of love

We are so proud of our friends Tony and Brett, who, along with their family and friends - and their four sons - told the story of their surrogacy journey on Australian television. Tony and Brett are the proud parents of two sets of twin boys, born through Surrogacy Centre India. You can view their story online at the link below


http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8367884

It is not easy to put one's family in the media spotlight. This moving story shows the love between Tony and Brett, and how their love made a family.

Be prepared to shed of few tears of joy  ... Tony and Brett - you did yourselves, your families and your SCI family proud!!!

Australia: then and now:Baby L

It is with absolute joy that we are able to help families have children, but we are especially thankful when former clients take time out of their busy lives to write a kind note and let us know how their baby is doing and give us their thoughts on our practice and the new web site.

But what causes great delight at SCI is when we are able to see the small baby that left Delhi grow into a beautiful, independent little person, thank you M and S for sharing this with us.


Baby L (then)

"What a great new website, so many beautiful stories.  SCI have help so many couples become a family which would have never been possible in Australia.

We can never thank you and your team enough for our beautiful L.  May SCI continue to help other couples become families

M & S" 

with this beautiful updated photo of L (now), what a gorgeous little girl.


We would love to see more 'Then and Now' photos from old SCI clients, so if you are willing to share this with us please let us know.

If you would like to be a 'Then and Now' photo in 2012/2013, please feel free to contact us.

Thursday 27 October 2011

From UK / Ireland :How fast you have grown!

We were delighted to see the photos of baby C, it is amazing what a difference 8 months makes. It it such a joy to see our babies grow to be big, strong independant little people.


Happy Birthday little chap, how you've grown !


We wish you the best of Diwali's blessings, may the next year bring you much love,light, joy & laughter.

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Happy Diwali to all

 Happy Diwali * and a prosperous new year to all,
from my family to yours



Diwali* or Deepawali is one of the most popular festivals of India and of the Hindus. It is believed that the festival of diwali commemorates the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya , after 14 years when Rama return to Ayodhya, his capital city, people were over joyed by the news of his arrival and started the tradition of Diwali by celebrating the day with lights and lamps.

Many Hindu consider Diwali as the beginning of new year, in the traditional Hindu Business world, it marks the beginning of a new accounting year.

Diwali is such a wonderful festival, a time of giving and sharing, a time to catch up with people, in other words its time to catch up with the little joys that we keep overlooking for the remaining part of the year. Its time to visit friends and relatives, so like Christmas, people take leave, armed with sweets and savouries meet and spend time with those closest to them with houses brightly decorated with Divali lamps, candles and hangings.

Saturday 22 October 2011

What happens after egg collection or what you need to know about embryos?

Once you have egg collection we, at SCI, do our best to make wonderful healthy robust embryos. So, as part of what we offer at SCI includes ICSI.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a procedure in which a single  (best looking sperm) is injected directly into an egg. The skill of the embryologist is paramount here and we are fortunate to have one of India's leading embryologist to do this.

What happens next : Embryo Culture

SCI follows the Hammersmith protocols in which embryos are cultured until having reached between an average of 2–8 cell stage between day two and three days after retrieval. Our embryologist will then grade the embryos (based on the number of cells, evenness of growth and degree of fragmentation),  that will assist Dr. Shivani, in deciding which embryos to transfer and how many to  freeze. Dr. Shivani, as your treating doctor will undertake the transfer to either you or your surrogate.

With SCI, we believe that IP's should have as much information about the process as we are able to provideso that IPs can :

1. Be informed
2. Have all the information available so that they can make informed, evidenced based decisions in moving forward.

Please see a sample embryology report given to all clients at SCI, (with client name removed). From this report you can see the number of egg collected, and the maturity (in this case 18 eggs, 17 mature - MII and one GV - germinal vesicle, not mature. It is important to know not just how many eggs were collected, but how many were viable.



From this report you can see the number of viable eggs that had ISCI and were fertilised ( again not all eggs fertilise) - in this case 17 - 2PN is 2 pro-nuceli - the DNA from dad and DNA from the donor.

On the left of the form, the four best embryos - all 8 cell of grade 1-1.5 were transferred by Dr. Shivani to the surrogate. If you would like to see Dr. Shivani undertaking an embryo transfer, please click here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hh2AugTW1Eo


On the right side of the form, you will see the number of embryo frozen and the grade (7 x grade 1 of 6-8 cells, and 3 x grade 2-3 of 6-8 cells.

Our embryologist doesn't freeze anything lower than a grade 3, as there is so little chance of the FET leading to a sucessful pregnancy and live birth. This is important information to have, especially if you are proceeding with FET in the future. Some less reputable agencies will often transfer lesser quality embryos with very little chance of success.

This was the first try for these clients, with wonderful results (and a twin pregnancy) , they are in the lucky 70% of clients with donor and surrogate who become pregnant on first try. Of course, there is always the unlucky 30%, but most SCI clients are pregnant on a subsequent transfer with 90% of clients becoming pregnant within two attempts.

If you believe we can help you, or if you have any questions, please feel free to email us,

Thursday 20 October 2011

Egg Collection


We have many women who choose to self-cycle with SCI, some of whom very generously share their stories via their blogs, but I thought it would be helpful to talk about the process. With SCI, it is important for you to note that it is Dr. Shivani who has trained and has extensive experience in all forms of egg collection will be the doctor who monitors you cycle and undertaking your egg collection.

Before Egg Collection

Prior to any egg collection it is important to have a detailed assessment of a woman’s fertility hormone levels and that we track your cycle to ascertain when you are ovulating. Establishing your AMH & FSH levels will give us some evidence based criteria to which we can assess your chances of success.

IVF egg collection

During a typical menstrual cycle, one egg matures and is released during ovulation. In order to increase the chances of creating a viable embryos and a successful pregnancy, we undertake a controlled hyper stimulation in order to stimulate resting/ dormant follicles. Your treatment is based on the information provided prior to egg collection, based on your hormone levels and ovulation cycle, so no one person’s cycle is the same as another.

Egg retrieval

Eggs develop in fluid filled structures in the ovaries called follicles. You cannot increase the number of your follicles that you have, but you can ensure that you make the most of what is available by carefully tracking your cycle and ensuring that medication is given at the right time. Each follicle can be seen and measured by ultrasound and contains one microscopic egg. The egg is loosely attached to the follicle wall. When the follicles are mature (determined by ultrasound measurements of follicle size and hormone measurements), the egg aspiration procedure is done to take the eggs out.

Anaesthesia for egg retrieval

Anaesthesia medications are given through an IV so that the woman is "out" during the egg retrieval procedure.

Egg retrieval procedure

A needle is passed through the top of the vagina under ultrasound guidance to get to the ovary and follicles. The fluid in the follicles is aspirated through the needle and the eggs detach from the follicle wall and are sucked out of the ovary ( please watch this video to see Dr. Shivani undertaking egg collection:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0oG-Gd7tiE&feature=player_embedded#!.

Laparoscopic egg collection
Is when egg collection occurs via you abdomen. This is an option for women who have had hysterectomies or other health conditions in which it makes it difficult to access your ovaries’. It is important to note that for women who have had hysterectomies, ovaries do move about and it is important to have an experienced doctor such as Dr. Shivani to undertake such procedures.
 
To maximise your chance of sucess, every step in this process needs to occur. If you believe we can assist you, please feel free to contact us.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

From Japan: Baby boom babies home in three weeks


It is with great delight that we share with you that our first Japanese babies have arrived safely home to meet their extended family and friends, with only a short three week stay in Delhi.

To date we have had five Japanese babies born, with many more due in the following eight months.

SCI understands that not all our clients speak English. Our Japanese clients have the able assistance of the Japanese co-ordinator who assists with all the paper work, translates information, offers support, assists with travel and helps with the all important paperwork to help bring your baby home.

If you believe that we can help you, please feel free to email us.

Saturday 8 October 2011

An Egg Donor's presepctive

Not everyone is able to use or access their own eggs in the surrogacy process, so the role of our egg donors are especially important. At SCI, we are privileged to have access to wonderful donors from India and abroad.

We are aware of how much our IP's treasure the choices they have and how much they appreciate the effort that all donors go through. We are especially mindful of the long journey that some of our donors from abroad take to help IP's fulfill their dream of having a baby.

This relationship we have with these agencies  has been a long established one, and you need only look at the diverse faces of baby on our webpage to see evidence of this.

We were delighted today to receive this beautiful card from one of our treasured donors:



along with these beautiful flowers:



We are grateful to this donor and the many donors who arrived abroad for the Sept/Oct cycle and wish all families the traditional surrogacy wish, may you have much baby dust and stickiness. 

Thursday 6 October 2011

From Japan: TWINS!

It is with great pleasure that we share with you this wonderful photo of Japanese twins and kind words:


Dear Dr. Shivani and the SCI team


It is the greatest pleasure for us to write this message to you all.

By the professional treatments by Dr. Shivani and the diligent supports by the SCI team, we have lovely twins whom we've been waiting for a long long time.
There is nothing more precious than the moment we saw them in our eyes and the moment we held them in our arms.
The opportunity we met you is also as precious as our babies.


The influence brought by their existence, regardless of their small bodies, is so enormous as changing our daily lifestyle, way of thinking, and our whole life itself.


No words can express our deepest gratitude for your commitment to help us having babies.
We would like you to continue to be the hope for other couples seeking for parenthood.

Throughout the treatments, we could have a strong bond between you and us, called TRUST.
We are thankful to you for bringing us a new tie at the end of our long journey, namely FAMILY.
We are in the happiest moment ever and it's just started!

A dream comes true.
But just dreaming is not enough.
We could make our dream come true by walking together with Dr. Shivani and the SCI team.
May every HOPE and the HAPPINESS to be with everyone who helped us and all the couples.

******************************************

シヴァーニ先生、SCIチームの皆様

こうして喜びと感動のメッセージをお伝えできることを大変に嬉しく思います。
シヴァーニ先生の卓越した治療、そしてSCIチームの皆様による献身的なご支援により、
長年にわたり望んでいた愛くるしい双子の姉妹を授かることができました。
彼女たちを初めてこの目に見た瞬間、そして初めてこの腕に抱いた瞬間は何物にも変えがたい感動でした。
また、皆様にお会いできたことも赤ちゃんを授かったことと同様にかけがえのないものです。

その小さな体にもかかわらず、彼らの存在がもたらす影響というのは、
私たちの日々の生活、考え方、そして人生そのものを変えるほどに大きいものです。

どんな言葉をもってしても、私たちの感謝の意を伝えきることができません。
皆様には、いつまでも親になろうとしているご夫婦の希望であって頂きたく思っています。
私たち夫婦は、皆様との間に治療を通じて信頼という強い絆を得ることができました。
そして長い旅路の最後に、家族という新しい絆をくださり、本当に感謝しております。
今まさに幸せの真っ只中におり、その幸せもまだ始まったばかりです!

夢は叶います。
しかし、夢を思い描くだけでは十分ではありません。
私たちはシヴァーニ先生とSCIチームの皆様と一緒に歩き出すことで、夢を叶えることができました。
助力してくださった皆様とすべてのご夫婦に幸せが訪れますように

Y & A

We wish this family God's choicest of blessings

Tuesday 4 October 2011

From Australia :A bundle of babies and lucky parents and friends!

When people come back to SCI, to do a sibling project you know that you are doing well as a service. It brings us great joy to see this family completed.

Enough words for now,  i will let the photos speak for themselves, a bundle of SCI babies with their mother:


With this bundle of babies comes the need for practical help and the H family has family and friends come over to assist with the important baby pick up:


There is nothing but joy for all of us at SCI to be able to assist families such as these and help them complete their family and to view photos such as these and know that they are SCI babies:



Dear Dr Shivani,

We have arrived home safely and cannot believe that only 2 years ago this month we started our journey to have more children with SCI and now we have 5 beautiful daughters. We have absolutely enjoyed every moment of our Indian Surrogacy Journey.
India has provided so many wonderful memories but not least of all our memory of you. We consider you to be a very close friend of ours and we look forward to sharing the amazing years ahead as we watch our children grow up. You are an amazing woman and I so greatly value your commitment to other woman to enable them to experience the joys of motherhood.

Love Kim, Paul, Milla, Asha, Isla, Jaya & Eva H
It goes without saying that we wish this family the choicest of blessings. What wonderful photos, what a wonderful family.

If you believe we can help you complete your family, please contact us.

Sunday 2 October 2011

From Norway: Beautiful twin girls and a proud father

Not every family we help is a couple. Some people wait to find the right person for them, but it never quite happens, but the desire to have a baby (or babies) remains.

We are very pleased to have been able to help Herman achieve his dream to become a parent with the birth of two beautiful baby girls. Herman tells us that he is forever grateful for the help & support of SCI in making his dream come true.


We wish Herman and his girls the choicest of god's blessings.

SCI helps many single people become parents, if you believe that  we can help you achieve your dream please contact us.