Keeping hope alive for childless women in Kenya

For couples unable to have children, medicine, technology and the law, have put mechanisms in place to help them.

Surrogacy

Surrogacy involves a woman agreeing to carry a baby for someone else. After the baby is born, the birth mother gives custody and guardianship to the intended parent or parents. It is a method couples across the world have used to have a child of their own.

A woman who agrees to carry and give birth to a baby for another person is a surrogate or birth mother. Parents of a baby born through surrogacy are known as intended or commissioning parents.

Kenya has no law governing surrogacy, leaving it shrouded in secrecy. However, it is still being practised.

There are two types of surrogacy, a gestational carrier and a traditional surrogate. With gestational carriers, pregnancy is achieved through IVF.

With a traditional surrogate, pregnancy is achieved through intrauterine insemination (IUI) using sperm from a donor or intended father.

Surrogacy too, can be an expensive process. In the US, the cost is estimated to be around $120,000 (Ksh15 million).

Kenyan legislators have, for years, no passed a law that would protect surrogate babies and the mothers commissioned to carry them.

In 2014, the Reproductive Health Care Bill, which sought to legally recognise surrogacy in the country was introduced in the Senate.

Under the Bill, which unfortunately did not pass, the Health Cabinet Secretary would regulate the right to gestational surrogacy in the county.

The proposed law provided that a party could enter into a surrogate parenthood agreement only if the commissioning parent or parents are unable to give birth to a child and that the condition was permanent and irreversible.

The Bill also indicated that a surrogate parenthood agreement was only going to be valid if it would be in writing and signed by all parties involved.

Opponents of the bill opposed its legalisation, arguing that it’s an unnatural process.

Surrogacy agencies in Kenya charge from Sh800,000 to Sh4 million per pregnancy. The cost of hiring a surrogate varies from one surrogate to the other, but commonly ranges from Sh500,000.

In vitro fertilization (IVF)

One of the technology assisted methods for couples with infertility issues is In vitro fertilization (IVF), which has gained prominence across the globe.

Here in Kenya, childless couples are embracing it though many have been held back due to the high cost.

IVF is a method of assisted reproduction in which a man’s sperm and a woman’s eggs are fertilized outside of the body in a laboratory. The fertilized egg or eggs (embryos) is then transferred into the woman’s uterus.

According to Dr Wanyoike Gichuhi, a renowned IVF specialist in Kenya, infertility in women is mostly caused by blockage in fallopian tubes, and polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal disorder common among women of reproductive age.

He adds another major cause of infertility is age, noting that after 40 years, many female eggs cannot fertilize.

Dr Gichuhi reveals that IVF involves an elaborate procedure that must be performed meticulously to ensure it posts successful results.

He explains that it involves stimulating the woman’s ovaries to produce the eggs before getting the sperms from her husband or partner, and fertilizing them in a special laboratory.

The woman’s eggs, the doctor explains, are removed in the theatre through her birth canal using a special needle and are put in a container before being taken to the laboratory where it is fertilized with the man’s sperm normally obtained through masturbation.

After 3-5 days upon fertilization, he explains that the developing embryo is put back into the woman’s womb, and a pregnancy test is conducted after two weeks, to confirm whether the procedure was a success or not.

Dr Gichuhi, however, says that before the embryo is transferred, many tests are run to ensure only the one without disease is transferred to the woman’s womb.

“Women who get pregnant through IVF have normal delivery or a C-section,” he explains.

The specialist tells The Voice that their success depends on age with younger women having higher chances of conceiving with a success rate of above 50 per cent.

“Babies got through this method are also normal babies just like the others.”

He reveals that they, at times, freeze the embryos in liquid nitrogen, which are then used if the mother needs another child in future.

Dr Gichuhi who runs a fertility centre in Nairobi that undertakes IVF producers, puts its cost at Sh500,000 with a repeat procedure going for between Sh150,000 and Sh200,000.

The IVF clinic, the first of its kind in the country, comprises incubators, which are used in the preparation of the embryos and another special machine used for preparing the eggs.

He says plans are at an advanced stage to start an IVF centre at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) to ease availability and cost of such services.

Adoption

Adoption has also been an alternative for childless couples. It involves legally taking another’s child and bringing it up as one’s own.

In Kenya, many couples fear it due to the misconception that it’s a complex and rigorous process. It, in most instances, involves a rigorous process to ensure the adoptive parent is capable of taking care of the child.

The Children’s Act and the Constitution provides for the process and the laws surrounding child adoption in Kenya.

All adult Kenyan citizens of a sane mind are eligible to adopt a child. The applicant must, however, be at least 25 years old.

Single persons are allowed to adopt. However, a single male or a single female applicant cannot adopt a child of the opposite gender.

Someone of unsound mind under the Mental Health Act, a convict of any sexual offense, immoral behaviour, and unnatural offenses, a gay person and unmarried joint applicants, are not eligible to adopt a child in Kenya.

A child who is above 14 years can give their own consent. The age gap between the child and the adopting parent should be more than 21 years.

According to the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, there are currently more than 300 Kenyan families cleared to adopt children in the country.

The government in 2019, suspended foreign adoption until the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection enacts new policies that will regulate adoption.

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