We contacted multiple couples through hospitals, doctors, blogs, word-of-mouth and friends -- but nobody wanted to talk to us. Even parents with happy, healthy babies politely declined.
Infertility is still an incredibly private subject in China, in part due to a stigma of being a childless couple. Once couples marry, there is extreme cultural pressure to have a child from both family and friends.
If there is no baby after a couple of years of marriage, the blame usually falls on the woman. Husbands may divorce their wives within two to three years. This is even more common in China's rural villages, where a child is expected and needed to take care of the family later in life.
"If there's no children, that's one of the most common reasons to get divorced in China," said Dr. Jia-En Liu, the founder of a private fertility hospital in Beijing.
After days of searching, many calls and many "no thank yous," we finally found a couple who was willing to share their story with us.
Following 13 years of marriage and two miscarriages, 40-year-old Luo Hongwu and 38-year-old Sun Ling conceived thanks to in vitro fertilization. It took one successful treatment and they were blessed with twin boys, Ganggang and Yangyang
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