THE SURROGACY SOLUTION: WILL RICH & FAMOUS WOMEN WALK AWAY FROM BECOMING PREGNANT?

FOR WOMEN WHOSE FACES AND BODIES ARE THEIR FORTUNE, SURROGACY HELPS THEM GROW FAMILIES WITHOUT STRETCHMARKS, MATERNITY LEAVE, DOUBLE CHINS, VARICOSE VEINS AND UNGAINLY SILHOUETTES. SANGEETA WADDHWANI CALLS OUT A HISTORIC SHIFT WHERE GLAMOROUS WOMEN ARE CHOOSING NURTURE OVER NATURE

The Duchess of Cambridge popped out three royal munchkins without skipping a beat. She had nary a baby bump to worry about, and faced the 24/7 paparazzi looking immaculate in her Buckingham Palace-approved blue chip wardrobe.

Here in India, an as-much-under-media scrutiny Aishwarya Rai Bachchan swelled up half a decade or so after marriage, both with pride and pregnancy poundage, subjecting herself to the age old female script of career, marriage, babies where the latter often takes precedence over every other consideration. Till the pregnancy happened, the ruthless and tasteless desi yellow media went on about her having TB of the uterus, and other idle and evil speculation. It was a bizarre trial by media, as if an actress’ life MUST pan out in a filmi sequence. It never occurred to the largely female newspaper snipers that an actress may choose to NEVER expose her delicate contours to the riotous disruption of a pregnancy. Because Ash was a good middle class girl from suburban Khar, she put herself through the nine yards (read months) of identity sabotage and bore Aaradhya like a badge of honour. Remember how photographers delighted in capturing a much fuller Ash with an almost vanished waistline on the red carpet at Cannes?

A director who cast her in an archetypal role as the Paro of Devdas, even went on record to say “Beautiful women should never become pregnant.”

As is custom in showbiz there were whispers and murmers all over about this fuller version of iconic grace, having lost her IT factor to motherhood.

Now let’s be honest. There definitely is a lot to be said for the price Nature elicits from women of beauty becoming fecund and real, their bodies like rivers in spate, waiting for the harvest of a ripened fetus.

Ash took a five year sabbatical from the headless marionette routine of fittings, rehearsals, light, camera, action, film promotion, and so on. She didn’t think work, wealth, pulchritude and performance in reel life were the only things that mattered.

It was the same with Shilpa Shetty, who put herself through the whole sacrificial spectrum of pregnancy when carrying her first born. Viaan. She had shared with me for a special exclusive cover story, that her muscle tone got so poor and her weight at 80 plus kgs was so daunting..she had trouble squatting and picking up her toddler! So hit the gym she did with a vengeance. But baby no two was a breeze…because another womb manufactured that bun! In Shilpa’s case, she at least tried to put a story to the choice of surrogacy…she had an autoimmune condition that led to several miscarriages. Fair enough. Because surrogacy was a 21st century invention, a new privilege extended to those who could afford delegating pregnancies.

This is where we sit on the edge of an age old value system that demanded pregnancy of a married woman. It was divinely ordained that she offered the gift of new life and family to her spouse.

In centuries past, our elders did not envisage a world where female ambition would pretty much play out on the scale it has. To me, an accurate symbol of this shift, is the bi-continental supernova, Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Everything about her journey takes the tired Feminist debate to exciting questions. Should a woman marry a man a decade younger? Of another culture and nationality? Should a woman dare to be rich and famous across two continents? And my word .. Should she ‘delegate’ pregnancy to a surrogate, so she doesn’t skip a beat in her highly visible line of work? More so because at 38, when she has iconic franchises like the Matrix Ressurections and solo lead roles in Hollywood knocking..this would be a ridiculous time to get inflated, semi-retired and sentimental about growing a fetus in the fashiontastic premium real estate of her body?

Think about it. Yes of course serious commentators on the chilling exploitation of less privileged women becoming fatally ill due to a serial hiring of their wombs, have to be listened to. Authors like Pinky Virani and her book, The Politics of the Womb, raise critical issues on the subject. Legal frameworks and regulation are needed to ensure that surrogacy treats both, the Yashoda and the Devaki, (the nurture mother and the natural mother) fairly.

And one would love to hear what the feminists are thinking, as surrogacy takes consumerism to a new edge. A friend of mine, the singer and yoga exponent, Shweta Shetty, expressed how she felt about how this great new facilitator of motherhood for women in high visibility areas of work. ” I feel the bond built between the fetus and the mother is irreplaceable and cannot be experienced through surrogacy.”

We will be hearing from more women as this blog makes the rounds. What is your take?