Ukraine, one of Europe's poorest nations, is fast becoming the place to go for people desperate to find a surrogate to have their baby. The money on offer is drawing in many young women, but there are fears they could be exploited.
Ana* was 18 years old when she found out about surrogacy from a television news report.
She had just finished secondary school and had plans to work in a hotel in her small western Ukrainian town, where tourists come to see a medieval castle.
That job pays $200 a month, but for carrying someone else's baby, she learned, she could earn up to $20,000 (£14,000).
Ana's family is not poor by local standards. Her mother is an accountant and has always supported her.
But she says she was drawn to surrogacy because she "wanted to have something more", to be able to afford "expensive things" - house renovations, a car, appliances.
Ana stirs her latte nervously as she talks. Although hundreds of women are doing it, surrogacy is still not talked about openly in Ukraine.
Media captionSurrogate mothers must be very careful, says 23-year-old Ana
Foreign couples have been coming to this corner of Europe in droves since 2015, when surrogacy hotspots in Asia began closing their industries one-by-one, amid reports of exploitation. Barred from India, Nepal and Thailand, they turned to Ukraine, one of the few places left where surrogacy can still be arranged at a fraction of what it costs in the US.
"We have so many childless couples coming to our country - it's like a conveyor belt," says Ana, who asked for her identity to be protected.
When she was 21, and after some years of hotel work, Ana finally decided to become a surrogate. By then she had a daughter and realised she was eligible. Under Ukrainian law, a surrogate must have a child of their own before carrying someone else's. If you have your own child, you are less likely to become attached to the one you must give away, those who recruit the women say.
Image caption
Ana hopes buy a flat for her daughter in her hometown, Kamyanets-Podilskyi
A long journey
Ana began trawling the websites where surrogates, agents, clinics and assorted middlemen post advertisements.
Soon she was 450km (280 miles) away, in the capital Kiev, for health checks. She signed a contract with a couple from Slovenia unable to have their own child. Ana was lucky - an embryo implanted in her uterus the first time she underwent the taxing transfer process.
But it was then that the difficulties started. She says the quality of care provided by the clinic went downhill quickly. Some surrogates had health problems that were not diagnosed correctly or treated on time, leading to complications, she says.
She posted her complaints online to warn other women but was rebuked by the clinic and remains too nervous to name them publicly.
The baby she delivered was born healthy but the experience left Ana wary. Still, she has now agreed to be a surrogate again, this time for a Japanese couple. They are handling things through a lawyer in Kiev and she will likely never meet them in person.
Ana has been more prudent in her choice of clinic this time around, but if all goes to plan, by the age of 24 she will have given birth to three children - one of her own, and two for someone else.
Europe's capital of surrogacy
Demand for surrogacy in Ukraine "has increased probably 1000% in the last two years alone," says Sam Everingham of Families Through Surrogacy, a Sydney-based charity that advises would-be parents.
The country, he adds, "has found itself almost accidentally as one of the handful of nation states" which allow surrogacy tourism.
Apart from the simple fact that it is legal, Ukraine's liberal laws attract people. It recognises the "intending parents" as the biological parents from the moment of conception and places no limit on how much a surrogate may be paid - essentially creating an open market where women can demand their chosen price.
But that does not mean it is straightforward. Depending where you come from, the process of actually getting the baby out of Ukraine can be a bureaucratic nightmare, with couples from some countries, including the UK, needing to stay there for many months.
source:www.bbc.com
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