To think gestation outside the body is a fab idea

[Allotmentblackfly]

Recent research makes the possibility of gestating a baby outside a woman’s body possible. Do we think this is a good idea or not?

I'm a firm believer in the phrase "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should..."

Think it applies here.

Yes- an incubator is about as close as they are going to get to inventing it too.

Not everyone has all those though. I loved, loved, loved being pregnant. I would have been sad to not experience that. For the reasons you listed, I went for an elective section and was absolutely fine

Humanity is full of awful people who would do awful things and this is a terrible idea. It should only be used to protect the growth of a prem baby. Not to convince trans women that they are real mothers or allow people with no emotional attachment to a child to produce them en masse for nefarious reasons.

Newborn babies show a preference for not just their mothers voice, but their mothers language. They feel safe with their mother when they are born as there is a strong sense of familiarity

I wouldn't call it fab, too many unknowns and potential issues, though I can see it being useful for premature babies or where the mother has an urgent health issue and treatment would compromise the babies health.

Yes for premature babies. No for anything else . There is no need . We have female people ( women ) who can do the job well most of the time. Experimenting unnecessarily on premature babies is disgustingly and abhorrent .

So your first point is putting men first. Righty-ho.

Jesus Christ.

Are you a doctor OP because I find your language quite disturbing.
I long for a time when vaginal birth isn't necessary?? Sounds like wishing women weren't necessary!

So many NECESSARY things happens when you give birth (whether vaginally or c section) including the release of essential hormones, the baby recognising where to get milk by the smell of amniotic fluid being the same as the mothers areola and all the things other posters have mentioned that go on whilst the baby is in the womb.

Eeewww icky lady parts...wouldn't it be so much better if we just hatched nice clean, healthy perfect babies from eggs.

Frankenstein was written as a critique on men's fear of women's bodies and their secret desire to be rid of them. Shelley was clearly on to something.

too much emotion/ lots of unnecessary screaming

I really hope you aren't truly a doctor because your stone cold lack of empathy for mothers giving birth is really breathtaking

I think it's a great idea if at all possible, but it's not practical. There would be no way to ethically test these machines.

(maybe someone building them in China already, though)

It won't be properly regulated and it has the potential to be used for such leaps away from what makes us human, and precious, and beloved from earliest gestation, and the ties of parents to child. Reminds me of Logans Run and any number of dystopias. The potential cons outweigh the pros in my view.

It's a scary world for women and babies if this continues.

Insane idea. Like a bad sci-fi movie. Women are not passive vessels in which babies grow, the myriad of interactions between the mother and the baby are not fully understood by medicine. The birth process is part of their development.

Just because we can do it doesn’t mean we should.

I loved carrying my babies, it seemed like such a privilege.
They still curl themselves up in my lap and they still fit, in a strange way.

It would be so wrong to deprive a child of that closeness.

We are learning more and more about how the mother and foetus interact and the learning and experiences that shape bonding and how the interplay between the two cause genes to switch on or remain untouched. The womb isn't a silent, static, space that is akin to some matrix style cocoon hellscape.

But we can’t do it. It’s not currently possible, and it may never be possible to even build a very basic version. I don’t think it would ever be possible to replicate human gestation perfectly because the whole process is so complicated and poorly understood. And even if eventually you did get near to it, it would be ruinously expensive. But we’ll be nowhere near having out-of-body gestation in any of our lifetimes.

As someone who hated being pregnant, and with friends who suffered fertility issues, it seems like a good idea on the surface.
However, as the previous posts point out, in reality there would be huge potential pitfalls.

Rich people buying ready-made babies.
Issues around emotional and social development of the baby. Who knows what impact would be?
Issues around immune development of the baby, there would be no exposure to pathogens or antibodies.
Huge potential for harm to the babies that might not become apparent immediately.
I worry that it could be forced upon women as an alternative to abortion.

I don't see it as a realistic possibility anyway, thankfully. Humans are not simple organisms. There's a huge amount that we don't know or understand about our development.

would have approved!

I think that there is so much they don't know about what happens between a mother and her unborn child that any attempt is highly unethical.

Even if you can get the physical requirements correct there is a lot of evidence of attachments in the late stages of gestation and when you consider the mental health of dc removed from their mothers I think it would be awful for the dc as attachment seems to be a key part of a child's development

Utterly abhorrent idea.

I have a lot of empathy! I have been a mother 4 times :). I just think its all unecessary. My poor old pelvic floor is in shreds

Yes, I agree, theres loads of things to consider. Bet you it comes to pass though!

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I kind of liked it too. But I think I could have lived without it.

I am a doctor but chose a branch with absolutely no blood in it lol. yes, it would be much better if we just hatched nice, clean babies from eggs I think. But hey, its not going to happen for a long time and probably only for babies who are premature etc. In the past, people were against pain relief in labour .... Society moves on. By the way I do love babies and women, but ......