Marriage Counseling: Having Children

Qin Sha and her assistants, Shen Ping and Guo Yan, an intern, open a marriage counseling clinic. Among the many subjects they tackle in consultations about having and raising children are whether to have kids, being able to afford having them but not raising them, conflicts between parenthood and careers, how one’s family of origin shapes their approach to parenting, using technology such as IVF to ease anxiety about fertility, getting fathers involved in childcare, conflicts over grandparents helping raise children, infertility, second and third children, postpartum depression, and adoption. As they work through these consultations, the three women navigate every stage of the clinic’s journey, from its founding to establishing itself, deciding how to run it, and shaping what kind of clinic it will become. Their different philosophies, workplace conflicts, and disputes over pay and benefits are woven into the concerns of the people who come to see them. Through mutual understanding and growing together, they ultimately find warm, satisfying resolutions for everyone involved.