Chinese families navigate a maze of laws and COVID rules to have babies in the U.S.
There's a well-established industry centered in California that provides surrogate births and attracts Chinese mothers to the U.S. to engage in what's known as birth tourism.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California — Inside a three-story pastel mansion in this quiet suburb south of Los Angeles, Auntie Wang cradles a 2-week-old baby girl named Echo.
"The more time you spend with her, the more she is attached to you," says Auntie Wang, who moved to the United States seven years ago from China. "You hold her, play with her, engage with her and look, she responds to you."
The 58-year-old clucks and coos at the baby in obvious delight. But for all the affection, she is not the baby's mother or even a relative. She is a hired nanny whose job is to care for Echo and other babies like her born through surrogacy — where a woman carries and
