Ho Chi Minh City reports first two successful surrogate pregnancy cases

Dr. Tran Ngoc Hai, head of the hospital’s General Planning Department, broke the news on Thursday, according to news websiteVnExpress.

Surrogacy is a case in which the embryo of a biological child of a woman and her spouse is implanted into the uterus of the recipient after it is created through the in-vitro fertility technique.

The first case is a 28-year-old woman from the south-central province of Khanh Hoa who has been married for four years, Dr. Hai said.

With some defects in her reproductive organs, the woman could not conceive so she has had her 33-year-old cousin help her with the surrogacy.

The cousin currently has an eight-week-old twin pregnancy.

The second is a 31-year-old woman from the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau who has been married for seven years.

With some problems with her cervix, she had been treated for sterility at Tu Du six times but she still could not get pregnant.

Therefore, a 27-year-old cousin of hers recently agreed to be a surrogate mother for the woman, and the fetus is now about five weeks old.

Tu Du doctors said they will perform an ultrasound scan on the fetus in a few weeks to check the heartbeat.

Besides the two cases, two other surrogate mothers have had embryos implanted into their uteruses but they have yet to get pregnant, Dr. Hai said.

These two cases will be handled with other reserve embryos, the doctor added.

The four cases are among eight applications for surrogate pregnancy that have been approved by the medical council of the hospital, he said.

Tu Du is one of the three hospitals allowed by the Ministry of Health to carry out surrogate pregnancy cases.

The two other clinics are the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Hanoi and the Hue Central Hospital in the central city of Hue.

During the first six months of this year, Tu Du carried out infertility examinations for 18,076 people, Dr. Hai said.

The regulation allowing surrogacy in Vietnam is part of the revised Law on Marriage and Family that came into force on March 15 this year, enabling people to act or have others act as surrogate mothers for humanitarian purposes on a voluntary basis after satisfying certain requirements.