To think gestation outside the body is a fab idea

As a way of making prem babies healthier then that is a good goal.

I don't think we can replicate the womb experience though, even if we can keep them alive there is so much more. Babies taste their mother's food through the amniotic fluid and hear the sounds of their family before birth, they feel the movement of her walking and they hear the sound of her heart and feel the chemical reactions of her emotions. Keeping something alive is the most basic level.

I absolutely love the idea of an artificial womb as I hated every single part being pregnant and giving birth. I wouldn’t wish that horror on anyone. I would have had several babies if I had access to one of these. In an ideal world you’d carry it around with you and always keep it close, so the mum and dad could both take turns wearing it.

I sincerely hope you are not anywhere near pregnant women in your career or general life. Your comments are disgusting. Just because you’ve given birth 4 times and obviously thought ‘what on earth do women make such a fuss over’ does not negate any other women’s experience of pain.

Disgusting comment from a fellow ‘woman’. Really disgusting.

Our biology is used to oppress us, but it's not the cause of women's oppression, so I think this falls down.

Even as someone who suffered life threatening complications of pregnancy, I think this is a terrible idea. A recording won't substitute for the natural rhythm of being with the mother in the womb, all the sounds, movement, emotions. There is a special bond feeling your baby grow and move inside you, going through labour to bring that child into the world. Even for the father, seeing the baby grow as my belly does, feeling the spontaneous movements just as we sit together or are drifting off to sleep, all part of parenting and bonding before birth. I think these things matter.

(And before someone says 'what about adoption, I'm just as bonded without being pregnant' and other things, I'm not saying other situations don't work, this is just based on my experience which is more traditional).

I don't find the idea the liberating for women - liberation is more than just stopping doing 'women stuff' - but more than that I agree with previous posters about how horrific it would be for babies as a routine thing.

Nicer than surrogacy for the surrogate,
But weird for the baby and probably not as good as being in a mother as mum and baby are so symbiotic. You know how breastmilk adapts to a babies needs biologically in a way that formula doesn't? Like that times a million.

Pod generation on Netflix.
bizarre!

What happens with abortion? If a woman doesn't want to carry a baby will she be obligated to have it transferred to an artificial womb?

I think its a fantastic thing. No sickness. No losing your figure. No tiredness. Can work right up till the baby is ready. No miscarriage. Nothing going wrong. No eclampsia. You can go and see it develop.

An artificial womb would surely be an incubator by any other name. And what about the impact on the baby - we know far more about the impact of pre-birth trauma, and the importance of the babies connection to their mum in the womb, hearing her heartbeat, voice etc and the importance of attachment pre-birth into the fourth trimester. Babies aren’t a product to be manufactured independently of their mothers womb - what a fucking horror story.

This is such a good point. This would only benefit (as far as you can call it that) affluent women with planned pregnancies.
So does the OP think only these women deserve to be "liberated"?

The rest of us just have to do it the old fashioned way because we didn't put a request in for an artificial womb early enough?

But babies actually learn their mother’s voice from in the womb, they wouldn’t have the same connection to her, they wouldn’t learn to be comforted by her movement and the sound of her heartbeat. They might be grown and alive in an artificial environment but we’d have no way of knowing the impact on their brain development and attachment. It would be completely unethical to experiment on babies in this way.

We know how to do it. That was worked out a long time ago.

it just can’t be replicated in an artificial environment.

also what about the knock on effects of breastfeeding? Would we all just think sod it and formula feed?

speaking of medicine, would obstetrics go the way of breastfeeding- so few people give birth, that we lose the medical knowledge of how to care for a pregnant woman? Would natural/accidental pregnancies be allowed to come to term?

If it works then it literally can offer what nature can.

Exactly the ‘study’ I mentioned up thread. Way back when I first read it I thought she was unhinged. Still do.

Agree completely

Horrific. It just needs to stop.

have you ever met a child or adult that was born very premature? Even if they don’t have any other diagnoses, (eg cerebral
palsy) it’s usually quite evident, to the trained eye at least. There is no way this would have absolutely no effect on the foetus.