Drs. Chavkin and Maher take a wide lens on the contemporary meaning of motherhood-from hiring nannies, hiring surrogates, to leaving children behind to become hired help in a foreign country. The authors in the collection examine the regulation (or lack thereof) of the global fertility industry as well as the changing nature of international adoption-both for those receiving babies and those relinquishing them. Rather than rehash each article, I wanted to present a recent conversation I've had with Dr. Chavkin:

RHE: There have been books written about reproductive technology and others written about the plight of female immigrants who leave families behind. What prompted you to tackle the entire field of global modern motherhood?

WC: The reason I thought it was important to pull together this book is because I think our notions of what it means to be a mother and a father (with a focus more on mothers) are really in a state of enormous transition. There are many aspects of this I find troubling and I think we need to be thoughtful and attentive and not just let things happen because runaway forces of technology and profit and people's short-term desires are not necessarily based on the knowledge of worldwide implications.

RHE: What was your initial research question as you began to explore this huge topic?

WC: I started out being very concerned about declining birth rates and whether state action was going to try to curtail reproductive freedom out of concern for declining birth rates. Women were delaying having children because of work and educational pressures and because of the way the systems were set up. From there I further developed this notion that as women were delaying babies, they were bumping into the biological reality that it's harder to have a baby when you are older. These women would pursue reproductive technologies and international adoptions. So it struck me that there was this parallel streak because as they were trying to juggle work and families and the rest of it, they were relying on nannies from poorer parts of the world to take care of their children.

RHE: What were you trying to investigate in terms of adoption?

WC: I went into it with a focus on the relinquishing mother and the adopting mothers. But one has to think about the children too. I was surprised that even though there are plenty of inequalities, I also found that there were people who have creative and resilient responses. This was really heartening.

RHE: Your book will definitely inspire dialogue, but on a policy level what you would you hope it would impact?

WC: I would love to see more regulations and policies for (international adoption and for artificial reproductive technologies). If I had my dream, I would like to have more innovative work-family policies. Why can't paid parental leave and subsidized childcare become available to people when they are students? America does not recognize this as a crucial issue because the the overall fertility rate is high, overwhelmingly due to Hispanic immigrants and this obscures the fact that certain pockets, like the northeast, have very low fertility rates.

RHE: What are your concerns?

WC: What I'm concerned about is that we not move into totally scaled up transformation of relationships in biology without a lot of thought and attention. I find it fascinating this meld of radical transformative ideas coupled with the most old fashioned conservative notions. For example, the same time you are splitting reproductive technology into these teeny components, you are also reiterating that sperm and egg, genetics, is more important than anything else, like gestation or childrearing.

RHE: Would you say you are optimistic?

WC: I'm not optimistic in the short-term in part because of economic austerity. Part of the resolution has to be through social benefits. It should be easier for women to give birth at younger ages and for women in poor countries not to have to relinquish children. I don't see that happening any time soon. I put the book together and care about it because I am hoping that there can be improvement.