A new article from Star News on Maternity Tourism in Queens, NY challenges the previous assumption that Maternity Tourism — the act of a foreigner coming to the U.S. solely for the purpose of delivering their baby in the U.S. to get citizenship — in the Chinese community is just for citizenship.
I previously wrote about a house that was shut down in San Gabriel, CA for code violations and was obviously housing Chinese moms who had come to the U.S. to deliver their babies. Star News instead investigates the same types of operations in Queens, NY, only to find that most “Maternity Tourism” homes cater to recent legal immigrants who have trouble bringing their own moms over from China to help care for their baby in the first month in a practice called “zuo yuezi,” where the baby is brought up in seclusion for the first month. The idea is to prevent the baby from being exposed to any germs, etc that might harm them in the first month, traditionally thought to be the most delicate and fragile one for the new child. It’s also designed to let the mother recover from the delivery, with a special diet, and plenty of rest that first month.
The author of the Star News article recognized that there might be some “anchor baby” activity happening around these “Maternity Tourism” homes, but didn’t find any in their research, and instead found many examples of moms using “Maternity Tourism” homes for a traditional custom known as “zuo yuezi”, a practice designed to keep the baby and mom isolated for the first month. Specifically, the maternity home businesses they investigated targeted middle-class immigrant women separated from their families.
If you’re not familiar with traditional Chinese culture, you may take this practice with a grain of salt, but it’s a real practice and one even my own mother tried to convince me to practice during the birth of my daughter. We kept our daughter at home the first month, but did allow family members to meet our new arrival. After the first month was over we held the customary celebratory dinner welcoming our daughter to our family, inviting friends and family to help us celebrate. A traditional description of the practice and the one month celebration from BabyZone:
After delivery, Chinese women “sit the month.” The first month is considered an intense healing time for new mother. She is freed from household duties and sits in her bed alone to look after her new infant. In strict households, even the husband stays away… The baby’s biggest celebration is at one month when the mother’s allowed out of her room. Family and friends dine and celebrate all night. Money is given in bright red envelopes and the baby wears a silver or gold padlock around his neck locking the child to this world.
So maybe there’s a real use for “Maternity Tourism”, and I shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss the industry as one that caters to “anchor baby” production. There certainly seems to be a demand for the services, especially for the many traditional Chinese families that are still practicing older cultural customs.
