Labor of Love

"Labor of Love beautifully illuminates the work of surrogacy, exploring a world in which women have children for other women. Jacobson skillfully interweaves stories of actual participants with commentary and analysis, providing original insights into the complexities of reproduction." -- Naomi Cahn * Harold H. Greene Chair, GWU Law School * "Jacobson argues that Americans should be more accepting of gestational surrogacy and freely acknowledge its financial side. She skillfully outlines the many ways in which the members of the US surrogacy community she interviewed deliberately obscure the financial aspects of surrogacy arrangements. Reproductive endocrinologists, lawyers, surrogacy agency personnel, intended parents, and surro-moms and their families almost all push a narrative of altruism and the joys of pregnancy as the primary motivations of women who bear babies for genetically unrelated parents. In fact, Jacobson argues, surrogacy is made culturally palatable in the US precisely because of the unwritten money rules that require the use of intermediaries to create distance between surro-moms and the sordidly financial... Recommended." * Choice * "Labor of Love is a thorough, thoughtful, well-researched analysis of women's labor in the commercial gestational surrogacy market in the United States." * Gender & Society * "Labor of Love is an engaging and well-researched study of contemporary surrogacy in the U.S. Jacobson thoughtfully exposes the contradictions surrogates navigate as they downplay the commercial aspects of the transactions and obscure the labor involved in being a surrogate." -- Susan Markens * Lehman College and The Graduate Center, CUNY * "Jacobsons rich qualitative data about the surrogacy markets inner workings make Labor of Love an informative and engaging read." -- Alicia Vande Vusse * American Journal of Sociology * "Labor of Love beautifully illuminates the work of surrogacy, exploring a world in which women have children for other women. Jacobson skillfully interweaves stories of actual participants with commentary and analysis, providing original insights into the complexities of reproduction." -- Naomi Cahn * Harold H. Greene Chair, GWU Law School * "Jacobson argues that Americans should be more accepting of gestational surrogacy and freely acknowledge its financial side. She skillfully outlines the many ways in which the members of the US surrogacy community she interviewed deliberately obscure the financial aspects of surrogacy arrangements. Reproductive endocrinologists, lawyers, surrogacy agency personnel, intended parents, and surro-moms and their families almost all push a narrative of altruism and the joys of pregnancy as the primary motivations of women who bear babies for genetically unrelated parents. In fact, Jacobson argues, surrogacy is made culturally palatable in the US precisely because of the unwritten money rules that require the use of intermediaries to create distance between surro-moms and the sordidly financial... Recommended." * Choice * "Labor of Love is a thorough, thoughtful, well-researched analysis of women's labor in the commercial gestational surrogacy market in the United States." * Gender & Society * "Labor of Love is an engaging and well-researched study of contemporary surrogacy in the U.S. Jacobson thoughtfully exposes the contradictions surrogates navigate as they downplay the commercial aspects of the transactions and obscure the labor involved in being a surrogate." -- Susan Markens * Lehman College and The Graduate Center, CUNY * "Jacobsons rich qualitative data about the surrogacy markets inner workings make Labor of Love an informative and engaging read." -- Alicia Vande Vusse * American Journal of Sociology *

HEATHER JACOBSON is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is the author of Culture Keeping: White Mothers, International Adoption, and the Negotiation of Family Difference.

Acknowledgments1 Conceptions2 Making Reproduction Profitable: The Contemporary Surrogacy Market 3 Laboring to Conceive: Surrogacy as Work 4 Managing Relations: Surrogates and Their IPs5 Working from Home: Surrogates and Their Families6 Obscured LaborNotesReferencesIndex