Birth Tourism

"Birth Tourism" is an expression that might sound quite odd when you first hear it, but it has become a trend in the past year. 

"Birth Tourism" it travel to another country, to get your baby there (weird!). 

Usually people go to the United States as the 14th Amendment says: "Every person born in the US is a full citizen of the US." The USA is one of the few countries in the world where being born there means that you are automatically a citizen- and mothers want to secure an American passport for their children.

"Birth Tourism" has become popular especially among women in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. 

It sounds a bit odd-going to another country to give birth to your baby, but mothers believe that their childern have a special adavantage by having a double citizenship or, if from China, mothers try to avoid the strict one-child-only policy by going to the US,getting their baby there and buy thousands and thousands of dollars for the journey and the stay. At least 10000 Chinese babies are born in the USA each year. These children can enjoy the educational system in the USA and later on the universties and many other privileges.

In California also so called "baby care centres" exits. They are mostly Chinese-owned and offer expectant mothers a place to give birth to their babies for a fee of $14,750, which includes shopping and sightseeing trips(isn`t that nice?). Turkish women which have gone to the US in order to give birth to their children even report that a company in Austin (Texas) offered them a special package holiday to get their baby in the USA.

The Tucson Medical Center (TMC) in Arizona offers a "birth package" to expectant mothers, and actively recruits in Mexico. Pregnant women simply have to arrive there a few weeks before the child`s birth. The cost ranges from $2,300 to $4,600, and includes a hospital stay and a massage and other special services.
The Nigerian media is also focused on birth tourism in the United States and has recently published an article which is called "American Agitations Threaten a Nigerian Practice." The practice referred to is that of Nigerians traveling to the United States to have a child — a practice that is spreading very fast and close to become an obsession. Travel agencies even offer "Birth Tourism" packages to the USA.I really wanted to find a website where I can book such a holiday, but I couldn`t. Sorry.

If you don`t want to read the blog, just watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1VysJg6uvU