There is nothing dreamy or sweet about treating people for infertility but the results and blessings are worth it. Dr. Pooja and Dr. Prabhakar Singh have been running (literally, more on that later) tirelessly for the better part of last decade silently revolutionizing and giving smiles to childless couples. It’s not really easy to bring a revolution, especially when it’s related to child birth and pregnancy as it has always been a taboo subject. The husband wife team run 21st Century, a well-known IVF and Fertility Centre in Surat treating couples. Statistics isn’t really worth a mention but the doctor couple are proud co-parents of 5000 IVF babies globally.
21st Century was started in 2007 with its focus on women’s health and IVF. Being the pioneers in IVF, the couple along with Pooja’s parents (who are also well-established doctors) worked tirelessly to spread awareness and educate people about IVF procedures breaking myths and giving hopes to couples who only needed a smile of their own in their lives. Needless to say that it was a tall task. It was difficult to getting people to understand that they were helping them make their own baby. There were all sorts of questions that they answered patiently. But now, people from all walks of life and religion are quite open about it and welcoming the technology with open arms. Brick by brick, the centre came up and there has been no looking back after that. The word spread and the centre has seen a huge turnout and a massive success rate if you can ever quantify the happiness that they bring to others.
The centre organizes regular camps and assists couples monetarily, given that this is an expensive treatment. The biggest challenge that they had to face being in a city like Surat was to convince people to not only accept the technology but also create a trust factor vis-à-vis visiting doctors from Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
It has always been a learning process for them; they have been travelling to learn and update themselves with the advancing technology and have given the best results to the patients each time. They have succeeded in many patients with just one cycle who had failed at other places with 7-8 cycles. Pooja had been the youngest IVF specialist 5years ago in the country to do so many cycles and that shows what young mind these days can do if they are just truly passionate about their dreams and work.
Dr. Pooja and Dr. Prabhakar have always made sure they provide each patient with personalized care. The entire process is overseen by them. And at the end even if the result turns out to be negative, the patient is satisfied with the treatment given. On asking why did she chose IVF as a career, Pooja explained that she had always been surrounded by babies ever since she was a kid and she was just 7 years old when she saw the first baby being delivered (her mother is one of the first IVF specialists in the country). Also seeing her mother travelling and being so passionate about her work was a big draw for her. They aim to make this a wholesome centre for female health -from birth to adolescence to pregnancy to menopause and beyond (cancer and cosmetic field).
As busy as they are in their professional lives, the couple are passionate marathon runners (told you – literally) and have completed various national and international marathons. Pooja is also a home-bred marathon coach. The couple is busy playing with their herd of three boys, one of them twins when not running or delivering babies gift-wrapped with smile.
They feel that it is a blessing to give a life from a life. We can’t agree more.
