Birth Tourism

[Mick]

Glad to hear things have slowed down a bit, Dennis. I had one of my former students, along with her husband and two children, visit a few years back. When I taught her she was around 20-21. At the time of her visit she was in her early 30s. She said she stopped in LA to visit a former classmate that was in a birthing home and the conditions were deplorable. The girl in question at the home was also a former student and I felt quite sad for her situation. Fortunately, the child was born well and is now about two or three. Not sure where they are living.

[Dennis143]

Glad to hear things have slowed down a bit, Dennis. I had one of my former students, along with her husband and two children, visit a few years back. When I taught her she was around 20-21. At the time of her visit she was in her early 30s. She said she stopped in LA to visit a former classmate that was in a birthing home and the conditions were deplorable. The girl in question at the home was also a former student and I felt quite sad for her situation. Fortunately, the child was born well and is now about two or three. Not sure where they are living.

On two occasions we removed women and their child from a filthy maternity home. Both the mother and father stayed in our home while the sick baby was cared for (several trips to a doctor) and healthy enough to travel home with the parents.

 

As a side note; although most birth tourist came from China, they also came from Korea, Japan and Taiwan. We've had both a Japanese family and a Korean family stay with us during the 'sitting the month' period.

 

The last straw that had me put my foot down and say no more baby business in our home was when we cared for a Chinese mother and her baby. The father was a Physics Fellow at Northridge University who I would pick up and drive to our home on weekends. The last drive to Northridge, taking the family back to their apartment, the windows had to be kept up so there was no draft on the baby and the AC off for the same reason. This was during August. The father kept passing gas that made the car smell like he shit his pants and made me want to puke.

Edited December 25, 2017 by Dennis143 (see edit history)

[Mick]

 

Glad to hear things have slowed down a bit, Dennis. I had one of my former students, along with her husband and two children, visit a few years back. When I taught her she was around 20-21. At the time of her visit she was in her early 30s. She said she stopped in LA to visit a former classmate that was in a birthing home and the conditions were deplorable. The girl in question at the home was also a former student and I felt quite sad for her situation. Fortunately, the child was born well and is now about two or three. Not sure where they are living.

On two occasions we removed women and their child from a filthy maternity home. Both the mother and father stayed in our home while the sick baby was cared for (several trips to a doctor) and healthy enough to travel home with the parents.

 

As a side note; although most birth tourist came from China, they also came from Korea, Japan and Taiwan. We've had both a Japanese family and a Korean family stay with us during the 'sitting the month' period.

 

The last straw that had me put my foot down and say no more baby business in our home was when we cared for a Chinese mother and her baby. The father was a Physics Fellow at Northridge University who I would pick up and drive to our home on weekends. The last drive to Northridge, taking the family back to their apartment, the windows had to be kept up so there was no draft on the baby and the AC off for the same reason. This was during August. The father kept passing gas that made the car smell like he shit his pants and made me want to puke.

 

 

Wow, Dennis! That last drive to Northridge sounds like a journey to the gates of hell. All that was missing was him opening up a Durian and eating it on the way. I wasn't aware you had been so exposed to the maternity situation. Glad you finally put your foot down. Sounds like a recurring nightmare.

[Dennis143]

 

 

Glad to hear things have slowed down a bit, Dennis. I had one of my former students, along with her husband and two children, visit a few years back. When I taught her she was around 20-21. At the time of her visit she was in her early 30s. She said she stopped in LA to visit a former classmate that was in a birthing home and the conditions were deplorable. The girl in question at the home was also a former student and I felt quite sad for her situation. Fortunately, the child was born well and is now about two or three. Not sure where they are living.

On two occasions we removed women and their child from a filthy maternity home. Both the mother and father stayed in our home while the sick baby was cared for (several trips to a doctor) and healthy enough to travel home with the parents.

 

As a side note; although most birth tourist came from China, they also came from Korea, Japan and Taiwan. We've had both a Japanese family and a Korean family stay with us during the 'sitting the month' period.

 

The last straw that had me put my foot down and say no more baby business in our home was when we cared for a Chinese mother and her baby. The father was a Physics Fellow at Northridge University who I would pick up and drive to our home on weekends. The last drive to Northridge, taking the family back to their apartment, the windows had to be kept up so there was no draft on the baby and the AC off for the same reason. This was during August. The father kept passing gas that made the car smell like he shit his pants and made me want to puke.

 

 

Wow, Dennis! That last drive to Northridge sounds like a journey to the gates of hell. All that was missing was him opening up a Durian and eating it on the way. I wasn't aware you had been so exposed to the maternity situation. Glad you finally put your foot down. Sounds like a recurring nightmare.

 

OMG Mick, Durian would have been a welcomed relief. There's no exaggeration to the stench that man filled my car. It was a constant struggle between airing out the car or getting flack from ma ma for letting that newborn sufffer from all that fresh air.

[Mick]

I dare say the toxicity from his flatulent fumes were far more harmful that any fresh air flowing in from an open window. It reminds me of an experience I had when I moved from Huntsville to Miami in early August, 1983. I was driving a rented U-Haul truck, towing a Ford Escort behind me. Accompanying me in the front seat was a miniature poodle and a full grown Great Dane. The Dane was an anxious traveler and after about fifty miles or so, I pulled over and gave the leviathan a hefty dose of doggie downs the vet had supplied. They worked. In about thirty minutes she calmed down, with her head against the passenger side door and her rear end, aimed like a Howitzer, right at me. She got good and downed out and began a symphony that reminded me of Beck's Bolero or, at times, a series of flutter blasts that I swear could have doubled as the 24-minute drum solo from In A Gadda Da Vida. I swear it was as bad as anything Sadaam unleashed on the Kurds back in the late 80s. Truly, a journey I shall never forget.

[amberjack1234]

Good story Mick. I got one too. The last time that the wife and I went to Beijing on the way back a 15ish young Chines girl was sitting right in the seat in front of me. She was a very attractive young lady. After we took off she started breaking wind and I swear to God that she broke one every 15 to 20 minutes the whole 15 hour flight to Chicago. Even during her nappie time. Of course it was all from 100% Chinese food and Ithink that we all know about that.

[Randy W]

This may explain the term, "Chinese fire drill" . . .

[wawster]

Holy Moly Mick!

you're accounting of the events in the truck had me laughing so hard I had tears!

[Mick]

Holy Moly Mick!

you're accounting of the events in the truck had me laughing so hard I had tears!

 

Believe me, that trip had me in tears as well - but not from laughter. The poodle probably suffered more than I did, seeings how dogs have a greater olfactory sense than we do. The little dog retreated to the floor board, where she was out of the line of fire. Of course, she did make a few contributions of her own to the nefarious rhapsody.

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

US charges 20 people over Chinese birth tourism schemes

• It is reportedly the first time the US has criminally prosecuted birth tourism operators
• The businesses were raided by federal agents in 2015

 

 

They also allegedly had women hide their pregnancies while seeking travel visas and lie about their plans, with one You Win USA customer telling consular officials she was going to visit a Trump hotel in Hawaii.

The charges include conspiracy, visa fraud and money laundering. But US authorities said the businesses also posed a national security risk since their customers, some who worked for the Chinese government, secured American citizenship for children who can move back to the United States and once they’re 21 and then sponsor their parents for green cards.

. . .

That business dated to at least 2010 but advertised having brought 8,000 women to the United States – half of them from China – and claimed to have been running since 1999, prosecutors said.

Each business brought hundreds of customers to give birth in the United States and some didn’t pay all of the medical costs tied to their care, prosecutors said. One couple paid the indigent rate for their hospital bills – a total of US$4,080 – even though they had more than US$225,000 in a US bank account they had used to shop at luxury stores including Louis Vuitton, according to court papers.

Li, who operated You Win USA, told an undercover federal agent who was posing as a pregnant Chinese citizen that her company would train her to interview for a visa and pass customs, according to court filings.

At one point, the papers said, she also sent a text message to her husband about the business, saying “After all, this is not legal!”

 

[Randy W]

from the NY Times

 

 

 

Trump Moves to Block Visas for Pregnant Women on ‘Birth Tourism’

The Trump administration grants visa officers more power to block pregnant women from visiting the United States if applicants are believed to be traveling to give birth.

 

https://nyti.ms/37wMkEt