Jennifer Benito-Kowalski traveled 9,000 miles from home to meet her son for the first time after hiring an Indian surrogate - a common practice for American women desperate to find a cost-effective way to have a baby.
After spending more than $30,000 on 20 unsuccessful rounds of intrauterine insemination, Jennifer and her husband Steve Kowalski turned to a well-known 'baby factory' in India.
The Kowalskis say it's a win-win formula - the gestational carrier gets paid more than she could earn in a lifetime, and the affluent couple gets a healthy baby with their own DNA.
Emotional: California's Jennifer Benito-Kowalski (right) receives gifts for baby Kyle from surrogate Manisha Parmar at the Akanksha Infertility Clinic in Gujarat, India
Elation: Jennifer Benito-Kowalski (center) and Steve Kowalski look at gifts for baby Kyle from surrogate Manisha Parmar (left) as two former surrogates look on at the Akanksha Infertility Clinic
New mom: Hospital helper Hansa Harjan (center) shows baby Kyle to his mother, Jennifer Benito-Kowalski (left) and grandmother Sue Kowalski for the first time at the Akanksha Infertility Clinic
However critics say the practice of 'human baby farming' is exploitative, turning vulnerable women, usually from developing countries, into 'ovens'.
For the Kowalskis, their son Kyle is a gift that could only be delivered through outsourcing.
They said the Akanksha Infertility Clinic was a last resort after four years of failed IVF, fertility treatments and normal conception.
'Some people just get to have sex,' Steve, 41, said. 'It's not fair.'
Bonding: Surrogate Manisha Parmar comforts her daughter Urvashi, 3, at the Akanksha Infertility Clinic just days before she is due to give birth to Kyle
Unassuming: The Akanksha Infertility Clinic in downtown Anand, India, is near this block. Hundreds of clients from around the world travel to the clinic each year for surrogates
'Baby factory': More than 80 surrogates sleep at Akanksha Infertility Clinic's dormitories on the outskirts of Anand India where they stay for most of their pregnancy
In 2012, Jennifer, 40, began researching commercial surrogacy and found the financial and legal obstacles in the U.S. were extraordinary.
Only a handful of states had clear surrogacy laws, and the service could cost more than $150,000.
That's when she discovered the Indian treatment center whose head clinician, Dr Nayna Patel, appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007. The service would only cost $20,000.
'I feel like we're helping each other,' Jennifer said of the surrogate mother. 'I'll be eternally indebted to her for helping us with our family, and in turn, we're helping her.'
In late 2012, Dr Patel embedded two of their four embryos into Indian mother of two Manisha Parmar's uterus.
Although Manisha, 29, and her husband Raman Parmar, 38, a flour mill worker, felt 'ashamed' at selling Manisha's body, the $7,500 payment would be life-changing.
Raman earns less than $50 a month.
'We feel a little ashamed about it,' Raman admitted. 'I had a lot of financial problems. I had to bring her here.'
Doting parents: Jennifer Benito-Kowalski and Steve Kowalski bond with baby Kyle while waiting for a hotel car after Kyle was released from the Apara Nursing Home
A child of her own: Jennifer Benito-Kowalski watches television as baby Kyle sleeps in their room at the Madhubhan Resort and Spa
Of India's 1.2 billion people, 70 percent live on less than $2 a day.
About 23 percent of its 587 million girls and women work, many toiling in low-paying, physically intensive jobs.
Surrogacy has become a viable money-maker for many Indian women - it is estimated to be a $2 billion industry.
Akanksha is just one of India's 150 known fertility clinics, about 60 percent of which offer commercial surrogacy.
Other leading destinations for commercial surrogacy include Panama, Thailand and Ukraine.
Dr Patel's clinic has more business than it can handle with more than 100 pairs of aspiring parents on its surrogate waiting list. It began offering surrogacy services in 2004.
Hurting: Surrogate Manisha Parmar struggles with waves of pain three days after a cesarean section at the Akanksha Infertility Clinic
Trial: Raman Parmar (center) and daughter, Urvashi, 3, ride the train to Khambhat, India, after his wife Manisha's release from the hospital
Shame: Finally back home in Khambhat after giving birth to Kyle, Manisha Parmar rests and tries to ignore the chilly reception from family and neighbors
Together again: Manisha and Raman Parmar rest after their two-hour journey from the Akanksha Infertility Clinic to their home in Khambhat
San Francisco Chronicle reported life for Manisha - and the other 80 surrogates at the clinic - 'was pleasant if monotonous' during their pregnancy.
Nurses kept close tabs on the women, who lived four to six to a room.
They had regular sleeping patterns, ate healthily, and took classes in trades when they weren't being injected with vitamins.
During their final trimesters, the women move from their dorms into the main clinic in the center of town.
Manisha eventually delivered Kyle by C-section, and although she wished to keep the baby, she knew that wasn't part of the contract.
Jennifer and Steve were overjoyed after nine months of waiting.
'We've been waiting so long,' Jennifer cried. 'Now we can say 'him' instead of 'it.' '
The couple spent 24 days in India after Kyle's birth dealing with red tape - passports, flights and other documentation.
While the wait was excruciating and the risks were high, the Kowalskis said their only regret was waiting so long before turning to a surrogate.
Manisha and her husband, meanwhile, had to live with the shame and family who disapproved of the process.
Proud parents: Sue Kowalski takes a family portrait of son Steve, grandson Kyle, and daughter-in-law Jennifer at the Madhubhan Resort and Spa in India
Proud: Jennifer Benito-Kowalski introduces her mother, Clemencia "Amy" Benito (left), to Kyle for the first time at San Francisco International Airport
Doting: Jennifer Benito-Kowalski holds her son Kyle in their San Carlos, California, home
Normality: Eleven days after giving birth, Manisha Parmar cleans her home which she has renovated with the $7,500 she earned from the surrogacy
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2456894/Moment-mother-meets-baby-surrogate-time-9-000-miles-away-Californian-home-Indian-surrogacy-center-dubbed-baby-factory.html#ixzz2hcdM9QxL
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