Inside a 'baby-making factory': How the rent-a-womb industry became India's latest booming industry

Dressed in a green surgical gown and cap, British restaurateur Rekha Patel cradled her newborn daughter at the Akanksha clinic in northwestern India as her husband Daniel smiled warmly, peering in through a glass door.

‘I can't believe we have our own child at last,’ said Patel, 42, gazing in wonderment at five-day-old Gabrielle.

‘We are really grateful to our surrogate mother who managed to get pregnant and kept our little daughter healthy. She gave nine months of her life to give us a child.’

Photos: Nigerian Ladies Paid To Get Pregnant For Childless Couples

Nigerian ladies have devised another survival strategy by getting pregnant for childless couples for a fee.

These ladies, called surrogate mothers, have even taken to the internet to advertise themselves to couples who are desperately in need of children.

Surrogacy is a process whereby willing ladies are contacted by either couples or fertility clinics to help carry pregnancies on behalf of childless couples.

It often happens where married women find it difficult getting pregnant or where they have issues with their wombs.

Through medical science, a couple’s sperm and egg are collected and fertilised and then implanted into the surrogate mother who in-turn carries the pregnancy till it is due for delivery. The surrogate mother may then be flown out of the country or kept away from prying eyes and monitored till she is delivered of the baby.

Most of these Nigerian women who registered on www.surrogatefinder.com, have their photographs on the website with assurances to their prospective customers that they would offer effective service.