Times of India
24 May 2010
By Vijaysinh Parmar
Rajkot, India

Not only did she give her daughter the gift of life by giving birth to her, Shobhana Chavda, 47, is all set to give her the biggest gift of her lifetime–the birth of her children and that too triplets.

Shobhana, who has lent her womb to her daughter Bhavika, 26, will soon help her realise her most cherished dream. Facilitating this unique surrogacy is Dr Purnima Nadkarni of Surat. Bhavika married Saurabh Kathvadia, 28, six years ago and he knew that she would not be able to conceive. "When we fell in love and got married I knew that Bhavika was born without a uterus," said Saurabh, a businessman.

"Initially, we looked into the possibility of adoption. Meanwhile, we came to know about surrogacy and two years ago, we approached Dr Purnima, who showed us the way," he said. Once decided, Saurabh and Bhavika started screening for surrogate mothers, but they all came at a price. "The issue was under discussion, when one fine morning my mother-in-law came to us and expressed her desire to become Bhavika’s surrogate. We were surprised and happy at the same time," he says.

Shobhana, a mother of four herself, says, "I consider it to be the biggest gift I could give to my loving daughter." Bhavika, on the other hand, is at a loss for words. "What can I say? I’ve no words to describe what my mother is doing for me."

Dr Nadkarni, who runs a test tube baby centre in Surat, believes that this is a rare case, where a mother is offering a womb to her daughter and is pregnant with triplets.