Robots give birth

For almost a century now, doctors have been trained in obstetrics by practicing on patients in teaching hospitals. Finally, there's a new way to learn and practice without working on a real, live mother and baby: a pregnant robot. The robot labors and gives birth, with all kinds of programmable complications simulated on the monitors.

While it's great to get some experience without disturbing a real birthing mother, this seems like it will reinforce some trends that are hurting mothers throughout this country. First, the nurses and doctors in training obviously aren't looking at the robot's expression or listening to its words. All eyes are trained on the monitoring instruments. The robot has a pulse and blood pressure, but no emotional or psychological barriers. Its contractions have a intensity and frequency but no discomfort. This reinforces the trend to look only at instruments and the numbers they provide, not at what matters to the laboring woman. Second, the robot doesn't care whether it has an episiotomy. It doesn't care what it jammed into its vagina or screwed into the baby's head. It doesn't have goals for the birth related to empowerment, personal integrity, and modesty.

The birthing robot is great for practicing the mechanics of interventions and complications. It is terrible for teaching people how to help a woman give birth. I wish for all the people who are in training the opportunity to see a woman give birth physiologically, without intervention or interference. They're trained in the ways a woman's body could fail -- they need to see the many ways a woman can succeed.