Dan Dan (not her real name) is six months pregnant. She lives alone in a rented apartment and a domestic helper takes care of her. She is keeping her pregnancy a secret from friends and relatives, including her 7-year-old son, who is staying with her parents. Only her mother knows of her pregnancy.

The reason is that Dan Dan does not plan to raise the child after she gives birth. The 29-year-old Guangzhou resident is bearing the child for an infertile couple, under a contract negotiated by a 'surrogacy agency'.

In January, Dan Dan had an operation at a public hospital: Using the couple's sperm and egg, an embryo was formed and placed in her womb. The surrogacy agency then helped her to move into a residential area. Other residents included about a dozen other surrogate mothers contracted by the same agency.

"We meet and talk a lot. We have become good friends," she says.

The couple will pay Dan Dan a monthly living allowance of 2,000 yuan (US$285), until the first month after she gives birth. In addition, the couple paid associated medical costs, a fee to the surrogacy agency, and an additional payment of 100,000 yuan to the surrogate mother.

"They are in their 40s and wealthy," Dan Dan says of the couple, whom she has met on several occasions. "Before they came to the surrogacy agency, they had tried every possible method to conceive but all failed," she says.

"They are happy with my pregnancy. They live in another city and come to see me frequently. They are really kind people. I am pleased to carry their child."

Commercial surrogacy remains a sensitive topic and occupies a gray legal area in China. At the same time, recent years have seen a rise in the apparent demand for surrogacy services. "The rate of infertility among Chinese couples is reportedly between 7 and 10 per cent," says Lu Jinfeng, founder of AA69, an online surrogacy agency.

The idea of the surrogacy website sprang to Lu's mind in 2003. One of his wife's schoolmates had an abortion that left her infertile. This condition complicated her marriage, and her husband eventually left her.

Lu found that many women experienced similar marital problems because of infertility. "A childless family is incomplete and has no hope," he says. "I wanted to build a platform to help those miserable women and families."

Calls were few and far between in the first year after Lu launched the website in 2004. But in recent years, he says, demand has started to grow. He says the company receives an average of 50 inquiries per month, from across the country. Some 15 per cent of their clients live overseas.

In order to minimise the risk of potential conflicts or confusion, the company applies strict principles in accepting clients. They do not receive clients without identification; they do not receive fertile women; and they do not receive single clients. Lu explains that some fertile women come to him because they fear labour pains or frustrating body changes after pregnancy, while other women approach him because they have decided to shun marriage yet still want to have a child. In both cases, he declines to accept the women as clients, as he considers "neither to be good for children's benefit".

His company also doesn't contract with couples in which only one spouse has agreed to the idea of surrogacy. Additionally, sex between surrogates and clients is strictly prohibited. Lu explains that the intent of all these principles is to prevent possible family disputes.

"About 800 couples have had babies with our help, and so far no serious disputes have happened between clients and surrogates," he says. "We want to make sure that the clients show honesty and respect to their surrogates. We decline anyone who simply thinks a surrogate mother is a reproductive machine and might treat them badly."

Hiring a surrogate requires a fat purse. The budget amounts to at least 250,000 yuan - it includes a 9,000-yuan payment for the agency, an allowance for the surrogates and medical charges, and plus a possible further 5,000 yuan if the operation is successful. The cost exceeds 300,000 yuan if an egg donation is also needed.

Potential clients first review surrogates' basic information and photos and decide whether they would like to schedule a face-to-face interview. The client, the surrogate and the agency will then sign a three-way contract. The agency arranges apartment accommodations for surrogate mothers until they give birth. The women will undergo regular physical check-ups at the agency's cooperative hospitals. If for any reason the pregnancy fails, the agency will provide the option of allowing a client to work with a second surrogate mother.

Dan Dan's experience is illustrative of the expanding yet irregular business of surrogate motherhood. Clients and their partners must navigate myriad cultural sensitivities and legal uncertainties.

"It is an inevitable phase of any new business. Still, I see great opportunities in the surrogacy service," says Lin Rongyao, who runs an online surrogacy institute in Beijing.

Many clients, aged between 35 and 45, have exhausted other options and believe surrogacy is their last hope for having children, he says. Lin notes that in most cases, the females in a couple are biologically infertile.

Lin says that his company facilitates about 10 surrogacy agreements per month. They limit the number of clients in order to ensure a quality service and also because the number of surrogate mothers is limited.

Some surrogacy agencies will entrust cooperative companies to look for surrogate candidates in the countryside. Lu says that a preferable surrogate mother is between 22 and 32, single and healthy.

"A surrogate should also have a mild character and not get her clients into trouble," Lin says.

Many surrogates are rural migrant women who provide the service as a way to earn money. Lu says that a percentage of his contracted surrogates also do it out of the satisfaction of helping others.

As for Dan Dan, she says: "I will never tell my son of my surrogacy, for I don't think he and people around him would accept it."

Yet she plans to draw upon her experience to help break down stereotypes. "I plan to write a book about surrogacy," she says. "I will portray the real life of surrogate mothers, and the misery of those childless couples. I hope the public can show more sympathy towards this group of people." (By LIN QI/ China Daily/ ANN)