Warning: Spoilers ahead for Little Fires Everywhere.

Hulus engrossing new drama, Little Fires Everywhere (based on the novel by Celeste Ng), gives us plenty to chew on when it comes to the policing of motherhood. But no scene captures that more viscerally than when a tearful Mia (Kerry Washington) bangs on her window, screaming Youre mine! to her daughter, Pearl (Lexi Underwood), as the teenager is lured into the arms of another mother. Its only a moment from Mias nightmare, but its wrapped up in the very real fear that her daughter, the result of a turkey-baster surrogacy gone awry, doesnt belong to her and could be taken from her any time.

Anxiety over losing a child to someone or something else as they grow older and develop their own identities is universal among mothers. Mia grew so attached to the baby she was carrying for another couple, the Ryans (Nicole Beharie and Jesse Williams), that she ran away with the unborn child to raise her as her own adding a layer of insecurity to her relationship with Pearl. Its precisely why this traditional surrogacy, in which the carriers own egg is used, has been mostly banned since the 1980s, when Mia was pregnant.