ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes five axes along which to analyse their experiences: the assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) industry, intercourse, kinship, infertility and homosociality. The ideology of motherhoodism and romanticisation of childhood largely underlie the success of the ARTs industry. ARTs represent a 'beacon of hope' that tends to hinge on the promise that pregnancy is always attainable as long as the woman concerned is not menopausal. Consuming drinks or food as well as wearing clothes that are meant to increase the chances of pregnancy was a common practice for the majority of mothers who turned to assisted reproduction. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine (TCHM) was the most recurrent recourse, as it offered a huge range of remedies to equilibrate the unbalanced energy in the body that prevents pregnancy. The conversations with the women whose pregnancies were largely facilitated by ARTs yielded the idea that prevalent understandings of infertility together with ideas related to blood ties have been crucial to their decision-making processes.
