A British couple are to become parents of two sets of surrogate twin babies created from the same batch of embryos - a phenomenon known as 'twiblings'.
The children, due in March next year, are being carried by two Indian women after a deal was arranged at a Mumbai clinic.
The 'professional' couple, from Bedfordshire, do not want to be named. They decided to embark on fertility treatment in India after a series of failed treatments in the UK and two miscarriages, according to the BBC.
A British couple are to become parents of two sets of surrogate twin babies created from the same batch of embryos - a phenomenon known as 'twiblings'
The number of twiblings has grown in line with the surrogacy industry in India - where multiple embryos are often implanted from the same batch.
In the UK, embryos from the same batch would not be implanted into two surrogate mothers in the same cycle. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) guidelines recommend that only one embryo is transplanted.
This is because having twins or multiple pregnancies is more dangerous and carries an increased risk of complications such as miscarriage and stillbirth.
The 35-year-old husband of the couple explained to the BBC that he and his 36-year-old wife had been struggling with fertility problems for 10 years - and didn't want to waste more time.
Once at the Corion clinic in Mumbai, their eggs and sperm were fertilised and then implanted into two surrogates.
He said: 'We had six embryos in the fridge and typically you would use one surrogate, but I thought "get me two surrogates and implant three in each".'
A month passed before the couple received two phone calls from India just days apart - explaining that both surrogates were pregnant with twins.
The odds of this happening are so rare that the clinic had never seen it before - but the couple plan to keep all four children.
The children, due in March next year, are being carried by two Indian women after a deal was arranged at a Mumbai clinic
The amount they have paid the clinic isn't clear - but the average surrogacy package in India costs around £20,000.
They also have no plans to meet the women carrying their children - seeing it purely as a business transaction.
'She'll get paid…we don't need to see her. As long as she's healthy and delivers my babies healthily, she's done a job for us,' the wife of the couple told the BBC.
Dr Kaushal Kadam, medical director of the Corion clinic, added that using two surrogate mothers in the same cycle isn't unheard of, especially if a couple is desperate to conceive.
WHAT ARE 'TWIBLINGS' AND HOW ARE THEY RELATED?
The 'twiblings' were conceived after IVF treatment.
This means the mother's eggs were harvested from her ovaries and were then fertilised in a lab with her husband's sperm before being implanted into the Indian surrogates.
Six embryos were implanted - three into each woman.
Assuming the babies have each developed from two of the three embryos in each woman, those being carried by the same woman are the equivalent of non-identical twins. This is because they are from different eggs but are being carried at the same time, in the same womb.
Biologically, they are the non-identical siblings of the babies the other surrogate is carrying.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2478233/British-couple-parents-TWO-sets-surrogate-twin-babies-carried-women-India.html#ixzz2j2NyD25D
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