1
I first came into contact with these surrogate mothers in 2009.
During the summer vacation after my first year in high school, my aunt asked me to work in her “studio” in Shijiazhuang. “It was just cleaning up the house, washing clothes and doing normal work. Just help me for two months, tube eat tube live, wait for the beginning of the semester, I help you pay tuition.”
As a child growing up in the countryside, I gladly agreed to visit the provincial capital for the first time.
When I arrived in Shijiazhuang, my aunt arranged me in a place like a basement. We shared a dormitory for four people, complete with washing machine, air conditioner and water heater. Some household appliances were even more advanced than my family’s. “There are fifty-three of them,” said my aunt. “They are wicked people out of poor places. Try not to talk to them. You clean up your house at 8 in the morning and do it again at 7 in the evening. It’s a lot easier than mowing grass and carrying fertilizer at home.”
I simply looked around, these “girls” were originally women in labor, then thought this is a place for women to raise their babies, did not think much. I kept my aunt’s words in mind. Fortunately, most of them were silent and seldom spoke to me.
It is true, as my aunt said, that some pregnant women are not of high quality, and they will just throw the seed peel on the ground when they eat the seeds, and some people will not be polite to me as a babysitter: “Hey, little girl, take off the clothes”, or “help me to take off my slippers, my back hurts”. But pregnant women a little older than me, in their late teens, treated me better and never let me work for them.
The food of these pregnant women is much better than what I eat at home, every meal is “eight dishes and one soup”, the chef is hired from five-star hotels, usually yogurt, fruit, snacks uninterrupted supply. Sometimes they couldn’t finish it, and the good-natured auntie would give me some. I am not good each time want, then say: “good intention my heart accept, you still take back to give your husband to taste.”
I didn’t notice it at the time, and every time I said it, their eyes would darken.
After the summer vacation, I went back to school and the experience faded from my memory.
After I finished the college entrance examination in 2011, my aunt asked me to work for her again. “Anyway, you have a three-month vacation now, so I paid for all your freshman tuition this time.
Hearing this, my parents also urged me to go to the past — at home, my father is reluctant to smoke a cigarette, my mother is extremely frugal, my score in the college entrance examination is only enough for a “two”, the university tuition brought my parents a great financial pressure. So, without much thought, I went to Shijiazhuang again.
My aunt still asked me to do the “logistics” of taking care of the pregnant woman, but this time in a different place, the pregnant women live in an apartment with elevator, the household appliances are better than two years ago, and the washing machine is fully automatic.
Perhaps now that I’m an adult, I don’t shy away from speaking as I did in high school, and Sometimes I chat with these aunts and sisters. I had a good conversation with an older lady from the Northeast. She looked to be in her early 30s, had a strong accent, and was simple. It was by talking to her that I first learned what sort of place it was.
“Sister Wang, when will your child be born? The whole family must be looking forward to it, and have someone take care of you.”
Sister Wang looked surprised: “Girl, don’t you know? This is giving birth to somebody else’s baby, and the baby ain’t mine.”
“Ah? ! Isn’t this the baby you were expecting in October? Are you selling children?”
“Girl, the an always think you know, this call surrogacy.” Sister Wang gradually began to talk. “I come from Mudan River. Mudanjiang you have never heard of, jingpo Lake always know? I arrived in Beijing after sitting with the old man for a whole day and a whole night. As a result, the old man fell ill and spent all the money he brought. At this time I saw the recruitment revelation, said to recruit love volunteers, a year do not have to do any work, not only the tube to eat, control, return 100 thousand yuan — An see there is that good thing, came.”
“But Sister Wang, this is not very good…”
“You little girl, you don’t know how hard it is to make money now. Like an so what work all need not stem, be pregnant in October hard bit, give birth to a child ache, can get plant 3 years the money that field all take not to go up. Besides, I’m a man that’s had two babies, and ain’t wanting one.”
2
After chatting with Sister Wang, I hurried to ask my aunt for proof. She saw that I was an adult and no longer avoided these things.
She whispered to me, “Ran, my job is called ‘agent’. Every time I introduce a ‘pregnant woman’ who satisfies the customer, I can take thousands of yuan out of it — but most of it belongs to the company, even the pregnant woman gets less in the end.”
My aunt said that she was introduced to this line of work by Lao Lu from tongxian county. I also know that man. According to their seniority, I call him Uncle Si.
My aunt came from the countryside and never went to school. At the beginning, she was in charge of logistics just like I am now. Most of her work was about cleaning and purchasing, and then she recruited several pregnant mothers for the agency.
The division of Labour is vague, with all but a few medical and professional translation roles. Fourth uncle, for example, is a sales, logistics and dormitory manager, who gets three salaries and several commissions. In these jobs, there are only two things that are important to the employee — a strong person and a strict mouth.
My aunt said: “Now surrogacy is not in compliance, we do brokers, and customers are generally in the car to talk, only signed a contract, give a deposit, will tell the customer the specific address of the agency company – without 100% grasp the customer’s details, how dare let them to choose a pregnant mother?
“Companies have links with hospitals, and bold doctors sell us information about patients who have money but are infertile. But most of the customers come from the Internet — some countries don’t ban surrogacy, do they? These childless people would leave messages on foreign surrogacy websites – meaning That I had no schooling and did not speak English, or I would have gone online to find clients. Their negotiating success rate is very high, the sea of childless people has gone, and now there are a lot of customers waiting, some of them two years to enter the queue.
“In fact, most of our clients are ordinary people, even if they don’t eat or drink, they have to save for many years to save enough money for a surrogacy, but they are different from big clients with money. They just want to have a child, and they have no requirements for the pregnant mothers, so those pregnant women selected by big clients are assigned to them. This kind of people had better cheat. They’ll send money just for nothing.”
Here, in a flood of words, my aunt suddenly changed her mind: ‘But these mothers are either old or have no trade, and would like nothing better than to lie here and earn money! And we don’t limit their calls at all, as long as it doesn’t affect the baby, whatever. You know how grateful some women are to me? They all kneel down when they get the money!”
My aunt spoke with a great sense of pride, as if she were the one who had saved the day.
Indeed, my aunt was right. When I was cleaning, some of my pregnant mothers said to me, “What’s the use of going to college, girl? How much money can you earn out of it? Otherwise, you can do this job, you this condition, at least a year can get more than 200 thousand — when I am old, I let my girl do, I am not going to let her go to high school, when she is 20 years old, I also let her come here, the way also can her brother married daughter-in-law money out!”
See me not to say a word, aunt again say: “to know son, do you have any friends — for example those who fail to pass the college entrance examination to come out work, or had a child, can give me introduction, I give you a few hundred dollars more for living expenses.”
I got a lump in my throat from what she said.
3
After that, I started talking to surrogate mothers.
Most of them found here through the Internet, and a large proportion of them got “recruitment information” through “qq part-time job group”. The agency will put the terms of “recruitment of surrogate mothers” very well: food and shelter, a monthly nutrition fee, living expenses, free medical examination, money in advance, and most importantly — “Your good deed will save a family, you are angels who will benefit the world”.
Aunt said, the agency in those telephone operators, every day will receive 30 or 40 telephone registration.
Others are introduced to “volunteer work” by acquaintances who say they will be paid between 100,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan if they stay for a year. And these introducers can get hundreds of dollars for bringing people.
Of all the pregnant women I know, Yanjie was “introduced” by her brother. I heard that she had been pregnant before, then had a miscarriage for various reasons, and her boyfriend abandoned her. Her brother told her, “You don’t have to do any hard work here, and you don’t have to worry about anything at home. If you earn more money, your parents will have a better life. In a year’s time, I’ll marry you to a nice young man.”
Think of his home straitened economic condition, the yan elder sister that does not know the truth was cheated by elder brother came here, want to leave desperately after knowing the truth. The agency threatened her: “Your brother has signed an agreement with us, you can leave, but you must pay us three times the compensation. But if you give birth to a boy, we’ll double the money for you. Think about it. What can you do to get the money when you can easily get 200,000 yuan a year? You don’t have a degree.”
But intermediary company didn’t tell her that eventually get thousands of these payments, is all some height 1 meter 6 above, at least high school degree, belowed more than 20 years old girl, other conditions worse motherhood, will be intermediary deducted part of remuneration, and even some conditions worse a surrogate mother, a child, to get the money even less than 50000 yuan.
Gradually, Yan Elder sister accepted all this. It’s just that sometimes when she talks to me, she lets off some hidden emotion: “Sister, I really envy you. I also want to go to college. I also want to have a choice. I can go to high school. My study is not bad, but my father said, the girl’s school is useless, in the end, will not get married, the benefit of outsiders.”
“When I met him, he was wearing sunglasses and a mask. I couldn’t see his face, I could just hear his voice, but I could tell he was a very cultured person.”
“How I wish I could have a child of my own. The last one left me, and this one isn’t meant to be with me, and I won’t be able to support him for a day after he’s born…” Before she could finish, she began to cry.
Before all the surrogate mothers arrived at the apartment, the agency had signed an agreement with them to have their babies “completely cut off.”
Once I heard from Sister Wang that an elder sister who had been a pregnant mother here missed her child wildly after she came home. She scraped together enough money to travel back to Hebei by train for three days and two nights. Kneeling down one by one in the company, she inquired the whereabouts of her child and said, “I just want to see (the child) and promise not to tell the baby anything.”
I tried to tell Her to stop talking, but another pregnant woman took the lead. “I heard that she even went to see an agent and knelt down all day without eating or drinking. But I guess I was disheartened or warned, and I haven’t seen her since.”
4
By July, six mothers had given birth, giving birth to five boys and one girl.
In one case, a pregnant woman got 300,000, making her the envy of everyone. She is the most beautiful pregnant woman I have ever seen here. She is only 24 years old. Her family was originally a well-off family. After her father went bankrupt, she decided to be a surrogate mother for others because she did not want to live a poor life.
She was chosen by her client the first day she signed with the agency, but she didn’t say yes right away, waiting for another selection. She started to raise prices when a Wenzhou businessman told her that she would pay 300,000 yuan to both men and women if she could give birth to a baby — and then she became the lover of the Wenzhou boss, who bought her an apartment and a car.
An older sister gave birth to boys and twins and was tipped $30,000 by a client. But another big sister are not so lucky, in the process of the surrogate she miscarried, only a few thousand dollars of these payments, crying hysterically every day – in accordance with the agreement, if motherhood midway abortion or gave birth, the customer will not give money, she became pregnant, these payments in the process of production, living and medical expenses shall be borne by the intermediary company.
So, in order to keep these ivf babies out of the way, the company and pregnant women have put a lot of effort into:
Before the embryo is transplanted, the pregnant woman usually has to have two Ultrasound examinations to avoid omissions. Only when you are completely ok will you go to the next step. The embryo transfer is quick, probably in less than half an hour, and if the first one doesn’t work, a second one is carried out at the end of the menstrual period next month until it does.
After successful implantation, some of the frail pregnant women needed daily injections of progesterone, crying out for pain as they shed tears. The injection site (usually the buttocks) and the chest became stiff, sometimes making them uncomfortable to turn over. There are also many pregnant women who are extremely ill due to pregnancy reactions. Some are so sick that they will vomit the meal they have just eaten right away, but they force themselves to eat it – for example, if the baby is born healthy and lively, customers will reward them with big red envelopes when they are happy.
By the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy, some wealthy clients will demand that the mother be sent to Beijing to give birth so that they can do whatever they can to get the baby registered in Beijing. The agency works with three hospitals in Beijing, and most of the time the mothers are delivered by C-section, which is linked to the hospital’s index. Both sides benefit and only the mothers suffer.
Most of the other births took place in hospitals in Shijiazhuang, where expectant mothers were sent elsewhere to look after their bodies, accompanied by special medical staff and nutritionists — a place my aunt didn’t even know about.
But these are all good, says my aunt, and there have been cases before where a few clients failed to get birth permits, so that a pregnant woman could not be delivered in a proper hospital and had to be delivered in a black clinic by an intermediary company.
(Editor’s note: according to the law, to do ivf, you must have a marriage certificate, a couple’s IDENTITY card and a birth permit.)
There’s a bunch of surrogate mothers hiding in the basement
Pregnant women aren’t always miserable throughout their pregnancy – on the 10th of every month, I see a lot of radiant smiles. This day is the intermediary company promise to remit money to their hometown, the so-called “these payments” is not a one-time payment to them, for example, if a pregnant mother take 100000 dollars to pay, intermediary companies are generally several times, in 5000, 10000, 20000, the amount of the first three payments, finish the final production, such as to give the final 65000 yuan.
Meanwhile, the head of the agency would come to the apartment every month and give each pregnant woman a few hundred yuan in cash. Their ID cards have been taken away by the intermediary company, and they generally do not leave their homes, but only go for occasional walks in the community, with little expenditure. Most of them carry their “pocket money” carefully.
In all the months I had been there, I never heard of anyone losing any money, but I suppose they felt sorry for each other, and neither felt sorry for the other.
5
One day, my aunt suddenly called me: “Ran son, you quickly pack up the box, while the driver came to pick you up!”
Before I knew it, my aunt hung up.
The expectant mothers also hastily packed up their things, but only toiletries. They seem to be used to it.
After a while, the bus arrived, and I was packed into the same van with eight or nine pregnant women, making my way around to a new and completely strange place — an old building from the ’70s and’ 80s that smelled terrible, with four houses, four rooms and one living room, a bedroom with a large bed, and three pregnant women sleeping in the same bed. The pregnant women were assigned to the top floor and the second floor — they did not usually go out, and the groceries were written on a regular note, and my aunt’s “assistant” and I helped with the shopping.
My 30-something, chatterbox driver told me the secrets of the agency on the way.
“Girl, do you know, the hearts in these agencies are dark enough. Some of them are not fit enough to get pregnant, so they have to be put on intravenous drips and pills — all of which will shorten their lives.”
“When an agent signs a contract with a client, he usually guarantees that a boy will be born, or twins will be born. If a girl is born, the client will not pay. So, those who carry a surrogate baby with a girl are forced to have an abortion by the agency. If you really don’t want to miscarry, you have to pay a fine. If the next time it’s a girl, try again until you have a boy. You know, a lot of people here have been aborted at least twice, and there are eighty girls who have been aborted, even if there are not a hundred…”
I listened with horror. Though forced abortions were a hospital affair, not my aunt’s, it was immoral in any way she did it — and I wonder if it was karma that kept her childless.
I remember once asking my aunt, “Why don’t you have a surrogate baby yourself?”
“There’s no need. You’ve seen these babies come out healthy. Who knows what will happen? These women who come here to do this are rustic brats. What good genes are there?”
She lit a cigarette, and went on: “In fact, I hate this job, but a better job, people do not need me! But don’t you think it’s a dirty business, son. It’s not a racket, it’s not drugs, it’s not prostitution. There’s something hidden here, but we’re also helping families with infertility, giving them hope, and paying pregnant mothers well…”
“Fortunately, you were admitted to the university, good to go to school to have a career, our family out of you such a college student, do not learn aunt. In fact, I live every day with fear.”
I know my aunt is very kind to me, but I still have feelings of dissatisfaction. Those pregnant mother’s blood and tears, has been weighing on my heart.
6
This mixed feeling toward my aunt didn’t change until My junior year when I met my surrogate mother, Yao Jiamu.
After I went to college, I would still come to help my aunt every summer. After all, those pregnant mothers need someone to take care of them, and my aunt didn’t trust others. The mothers came in waves, and every time I came, I saw new faces.
I went shopping one summer vacation that year, and, as usual, all the other pregnant women were buying FMCG products like hair lotions and body lotions, except for one new girl who asked me to bring her a word book for Cet-6, which I hadn’t even passed at that time.
And those who call “Li Zhaodi”, “Liu Xiangmei” and other names of pregnant mothers are different, this girl called Yao Jiamu, a listen to is like born in a scholar family, people look very temperament, usually say things will take care of everyone’s feelings. Every time I came over, she would always smile and recite the words with me. After chatting with her, I learned that she was a student of “211 project” university with excellent grades. She had planned to take the postgraduate entrance exam, but unexpectedly, her mother suddenly suffered from cerebral infarction. She spent more than 100,000 yuan on the rescue in the hospital and tens of thousands of yuan on rehabilitation treatment.
I asked her, “Do you regret it? You shouldn’t be in this place. You’re not like them.”
“Without an agent,” she told me, “I probably wouldn’t be able to pay my medical bills. Not only did they advance the money, they also gave me a mother’s experience. A loss is a gain, we are all poor people, what is the difference? As long as I can live in health, I am satisfied.”
When the fetus was about six months old, she said to me, “Xiao Ran, the last time I met with a client, I wanted the baby’s nickname to be from me. I wanted the baby to be called ‘Keyu’ — from the ‘stone of other mountains, you can attack jade’, but the client didn’t agree. Now I have written a letter with a lucky pearl in it, which my mother gave me when I was in college. If you and Keyu ever meet again, I hope you can help me give it to him.”
“And what if I can’t meet him?”
“It doesn’t matter if we can’t meet each other. If there is fate, we can still meet each other.” Then she buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
In fact, I’ve been approached many times by pregnant women who want to leave something for me to whisper to their children, but I’ve declined — I never see the children, and I’ve never met any of my clients.
I did not have the heart to tell Her this, and could not make up my mind to refuse her, so I took the letter. When I tried to ask my aunt for information about the client who had let Yao Jiamu have a surrogate baby, she rebuffed me: “So son, do you know what’s the use of this? And though you sympathize with her, if you go to the child, the child will know that it is not her father and mother’s child. Do you not think that would hurt the child?”
I was speechless.
Later, when my parents were cleaning the house, they threw away the letters That Camus had left for me as garbage. Due to my frequent change of phone number, the cell phone number I left for her couldn’t get through. So far, I haven’t been able to say sorry to her.
Aunt saw me have been reading this matter, they made an exception to look up yao Jiamu’s customer information, told me: “the couple are doctors, quality is also high.”
That was the only comfort I had left.
Afterword.
After college, I applied for a job in a travel agency with my aunt through her contacts.
By then, she had stopped being a surrogate “agent” and started practicing Buddhism, going to the Ashram every week and filling her house with Buddhist books. “There are so many karmic obstacles in my life,” she says. “Learning Buddhism can keep my mind quiet.”
It is said that now there are more and more surrogate companies. Instead of taking care of young girls like me who have no nursing experience, the surrogate mothers are accompanied by nursing workers, nutritionists and even psychologists from the confinement center.
I have never been to the place again, and I am told that it has been shut down, leaving nothing but grass.
(Names involved in the article are pseudonyms)
Recent Comments