Abstract

This article is based on various interconnected ethnographic research studies. The data come from fieldwork carried out in two fertility clinics of Southern California (2014-2016; 2017-ongoing), in which the experiences of thirty-five US gestational surrogates were collected. The article is divided into two parts: in the first section, I will present a brief history of surrogacy in the United States. I will read surrogacy as a cultural anomaly (Douglas, 2002) in order to illustrate the common representations of women who decide to part with the baby they have carried in their wombs; in the second, ethnographic section, which describes how US surrogates represent the babies they carry for others, I will show how these women redefine the meanings of pregnancy, maternity and parenthood.