The XX Factor: What women really think.

Surrogate Motherhood: It's Not Just a Job, It's ...

In response to Meredith's request to the mothers among us to tote up the number of "billable hours" in a pregnancy: This sum seems inherently incalculable, not only because it would differ wildly and unforeseeably from person to person and pregnancy to pregnancy, but because the normal model of pay for work just doesn't apply to bearing a child for someone else in exchange for money ... (Read the rest of this post, or the whole conversation, in Double X.)

You Want My Body for 3 Bucks an Hour?

A post from Double X writer Meredith Simons:

Jessica, Kerry, and Sarah, your posts have me curious about the price of parenthood in surrogate situations, for both “intended parents” and surrogates. I crunched some numbers using the $20,000 payment that you mentioned, Sarah, and was shocked to realize that a surrogate making that much for a full-term pregnancy would earn less than half the federal minimum wage... (Read more in Double X.)