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In this text there's a sentence that I'm not quite sure how to translate.

Il y a actuellement à Katmandou 25 enfants nés de mères les ayant portés pour le compte d'Israéliens venus les récupérer au Népal.

I'm not sure what “ayant portés” means here. What does it mean, and why is it conjugated this way?

My current English translation is

Currently, at Katmandu, there are 25 babies born from mothers having carried them on behalf of Israelis, who have come to Nepal to recover them.

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  • This site is about French, not about English. Furthermore this isn't a question, it's a review request, which is not what Stack Exchange is about.
    – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile'
    May 3, 2015 at 10:05
  • An obvious mistake is that Israéliens in English is Israelis, not Israelites.
    – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile'
    May 3, 2015 at 10:06
  • @Gilles Ok. Thanks for the Isralis correction. I've modified my question. Does it suit the criteria now? Thanks.
    – An old man in the sea.
    May 3, 2015 at 10:08
  • Do you have trouble understanding the French expression (in which case we can help), or are you looking for the right English word (in which case we can't help)? On a personal note, I think people would understand in context, but English wouldn't use carried here but borne.
    – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile'
    May 3, 2015 at 10:17
  • @Gilles I'm trying to understand exactly what the sentence says, specifically the conjugation of that verb
    – An old man in the sea.
    May 3, 2015 at 10:19

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The verb “ayant portés” is a participe passé composé (not to be confused with a participe passé, which would be “porté[e][s]”). A participe présent would be :

mères les portant pour le compte d'Israéliens …

which is synonymous with

mères qui les portent pour le compte d'Israéliens …

that is, mothers who are currently bearing them (the babies — or rather the fetuses at that point) on behalf of Israelis. The clause around the present participle is a complement of the noun “mères”; it describes an action that the mothers are currently doing or a state that the mothers are currently in. In the past tense, the sentence fragment becomes

mères les ayant portés pour le compte d'Israéliens

which is synonymous with

mères qui les ont portés pour le compte d'Israéliens

that is, mothers who in the past bore the aforementioned babies.

Note that “porté” in this context refers to a mother bearing a child (i.e. being pregnant with and giving birth to), not to carrying an infant in one's arms.

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