When Kim Kardashian and Kanye West announced that they'll be using a surrogate in the future it dominated headlines across the globe. Kim has been very open about her difficult pregnancies in the past but has also claimed she'd struggle with watching another person carry her child.
Surrogacy is on the rise, but what if there was an alternative to the emotionally fraught journey of choosing someone else to carry your child?
Students from Artez Product Design Arnhem have come up with a provocative solution: Par-tu-ri-ent is an incubation system for bringing a child into the world completely outside the womb.
The pod is an artificial internet connected incubator that you can keep in your home, it has a curved clear lid so that parents can watch the development of the foetus as it grows. There's also a portable care bag that parents can wear over their bodies which simulates the baby kicking, in return if you rock the bag the pod imitates the movement to enhance the bonding experience.
We know, it sounds a little sci-fi, take a look at the video below and remember, this is a concept:
The project was presented at this year’s Biodesign Challenge Summit, and it's intended to offer “a realistic impression of what the consequences of the progress of biotechnology and bio-design could be.”
Although this seems light years away, let's not forget that scientists have already created artificial wombs that can keep lambs alive for up to 4 weeks outside the mother's womb.
You never know... this could be the future of pregnancy.
