They say it's the purest form of love; their tiny little hands wrapping around your fingers, or those wobbly first steps just enough to make it to your warm embrace.
Motherhood is a role women are conditioned to assume quite naturally, but for many it's an arduous journey.
"My husband and I have been married for more than five years, and we’re trying so hard to have a baby. A few years back, we found out I have a medical condition, a sickness of the uterus lining which means I won’t be able to have pregnancy," shares Lauren (name changed).
Over the years, although becoming a mother has been regarded as a choice -- one, that many women decide to take on when they feel ready financially, physically and more so emotionally -- somewhere, at the back of their minds, a faint ticking of that biological clock, acts as reminder that age and fertility are inversely proportional.
Thus, for women who make the decision to have a delayed pregnancy or those with health issues adding to fertility challenges, something that has come to their rescue is egg freezing, a practice that has been there for the last 15 years or so, informs Dr Kedar Padte, a gynaecologist from Panjim.
He explains, “Every month, a girl ovulates around 14 days after which an egg is released. If it’s not fertilized, it dies within 24 hours."
"There’s an X amount of eggs in a female’s body, but after the age of 30, it starts dropping drastically, and after the age of 35, it becomes very low. This is measured by the anti-mullerian hormone (AMH)."
Lauren, who's in her mid-thirties, was diagnosed with endometrial carcinoma in situ, and after being advised to go through therapy and thorough medication for it, she took the decision to freeze her eggs.
“We aren’t sure what would happen after the medication. There’s a chance I might lose my capability to produce eggs, or they may get affected. So, we decided to freeze them," she shares.
Dr Kedar explains that the procedure takes about two to three weeks. "The patient takes (follicle stimulating hormone) injections for eight to ten days. So, in the same month, she releases 10-15 oocytes, or eggs."
After the woman is admitted, under general anaesthesia and ultra sound guidance, oocyte aspiration needles are used to retrieve the eggs.
"The quality of the oocytes are then checked by the radiologist and the good ones are frozen through a technique called vitrification," Dr Kedar informs.
Vitrification is an ultra-rapid freezing technique, and using it, the frozen oocytes can remain the same for years or decades.
"When the woman wants to become pregnant, the oocytes can be taken out, fertilised with a male’s sperm and put back," the doctor further explains.
Having gone through the procedure herself, Lauren says, "It (egg freezing) wasn't a simple process." She pauses as she recalls those days; then continues, "It was physically, emotionally and financially exhausting."
She and her husband knew the journey wouldn't be an easy one, but what kept them going was their goal to have a baby.
"I had to go through injections; we had to manage our schedules because both of us have full-time jobs so it was difficult. But, we had no choice, but to go through it," Lauren confesses, adding that in spite of it all she looks at egg freezing from a totally positive perspective.
Dr Kedar advises that the best age to get egg freezing done is at 25-35 years and the costing generally ranges from Rs 1,50,000 (one lakh fifty thousand).
"In Goa, there aren’t many happening, I’m not aware if they’re happening at many IVF centres in the state," the doctor informs.
Apart from egg freezing, Lauren feels the surrogacy law in India needs to be less stringent. India currently bans commercial surrogacy which is punishable with a jail term and fine of Rs 10 lakhs.
“I’m just lucky, because I was able to do the medication and I believe I’m getting better now. So hopefully, I’ll get the baby soon, but I’m thinking of other women who are just like me, who are totally hopeless and won’t be able to make it and get pregnant, ” Lauren explains, feeling sentimental.
There’s a saying that goes, ‘The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’ implying that mothers have a crucial role in raising future generations.
Being a mother is an experience Lauren and many other women eagerly anticipate, and procedures like egg freezing can potentially assist them in this journey.