Five years ago, Liz Tripodi nervously touched down in Georgia, on Russia's doorstep, to meet her newborn twins.

At the time, she knew no-one else who had been there to have a baby.

Now at least 400 Australian families have followed, turning the small eastern European country into an unexpected hub for commercial surrogacy.

"For my husband and I, it was a 13-year journey with infertility," Ms Tripodi said.

"We literally tried every treatment possible and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"The girls are the light of our lives — we wish we'd gone to Georgia and done it (surrogacy) sooner."

Georgia is one of the few countries in the world where it is legal to pay someone to carry your child — and its baby business is booming.

The country, which has a population roughly the size of

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