Founder of Surrogacy Australia, Sam Everingham, estimated about 60 women in Nepal are carrying fetuses for Australians who have paid approximately $40,000 each to eight clinics offering their services.

He told Fairfax Media he knew of 10 couples who have been anxiously inquiring about their surrogates, including three whose surrogates are due to give birth in the next two months.

Mr Everingham said these commissioning parents had been told their surrogates were safe and that there would be adequate hospital services for them to give birth. But he said there was some trepidation about the accuracy of the information they were receiving from the clinics, including some which have been damaged in the earthquake.

It is also unclear when the Australians will be able to take their babies home due to delays in legislation permitting surrogacy in Nepal – a country which has only recently opened itself up to the business just as Thailand and India started shutting out foreigners due to controversies including the Baby Gammy saga.

While Israeli authorities reportedly deployed military planes on Monday to rescue its nationals and 26 babies born to surrogate mothers commissioned by gay Israeli men, Australian authorities have not demonstrated any intention to assist surrogates carrying Australians' unborn babies.

In email correspondence seen by Fairfax Media, staff at the Australian High Commission in New Delhi told Australians inquiring about their surrogacy arrangements this week that Australian embassy resources in Kathmandu were "dedicated to locating and assisting Australians who are in Nepal".

The Australian High Commission staff told the commissioning parents that they should prepare for "significant delays" in laws and guidelines permitting them to take their children home. They said parents should consider making alternative care arrangements for their children once they are born and "prepare for the possibility of an extended stay in Nepal".

Mr Everingham said while the Nepali government last year said it would allow foreigners to commission Indian surrogates in Nepal, the government has not yet outlined procedures for babies to exit the country – a process that usually requires DNA testing to establish legal parentage so the babies can gain Australian citizenship to travel to Australia.

That Australians had decided to strike surrogacy arrangements in Nepal before its government had legislated for it showed the risks people would take to fulfil their dreams of parenthood, Mr Everingham said.

While altruistic surrogacy is permitted in Australia, a new survey of 15 international surrogacy clinics suggests Australians are among the greatest users of commercial surrogates in overseas countries which have varying levels of regulation to ensure women are treated ethically.

A December survey of 15 international surrogacy clinics found 391 Australians had commissioned surrogates through them over the past three years. They were closely followed by 384 Americans, 304 Israelis and 292 people from China and Hong Kong.

The 15 clinics that responded included four in the US, four in India, two in Mexico and one each in Thailand, Canada, the UK, Georgia and Nepal.

A report by Families Through Surrogacy, which conducted the survey, said when this data was modelled to account for 23 clinics that did not respond to the questionnaire, the results suggested about 2000 Australians had travelled overseas between 2012 and 2014 for surrogacy.

Mr Everingham said Australians were flocking overseas because adoption was difficult and there was little support for altruistic surrogates in Australia who cannot be paid beyond coverage of reasonable medical expenses. Furthermore, he said IVF involving surrogacy in Australia did not receive medicare subsidies, making local arrangements just as expensive as paying an overseas surrogate in some cases.

"Something needs to change," he said. "Research has shown that when regulation or affordability in a home state is too restrictive people will travel across borders for surrogacy extensively."

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop declined to comment on what, if anything, was being done to assist Australians who have surrogacy arrangements in Nepal. But last month, she stressed that Australian couples wanting children born through surrogacy abroad should carefully consider the legal circumstances.

Her comments followed revelations by the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program that Australian officials could do almost nothing to stop an Australian couple from abandoning their baby son, who was born along with a twin sister through surrogacy in India, after deciding that they only wanted to take the girl back to Australia.

It also comes after last year's baby Gammy case, where a little boy with Down syndrome was left in Thailand by his biological Australian parents.

Surrogacy Australia is co-hosting its fourth annual conference in Sydney on May 16, 17. The full programme can be found at www.familiesthrusurrogacy.com/au