August 29, 2025

Imagine a world where babies grow without a mother's womb! Sounds like sci-fi, right? Recently, a fake news story about a Chinese firm creating the world's first pregnancy robot with an artificial womb made big headlines—everyone wanted to believe it. But guess what? That high-tech wonder is still far from reality. In fact, the idea of 'artificial wombs' has been stirring minds for many years. When Gita Aravamudan wrote her book "Baby Makers" in 2016, she discussed this possibility, calling it "Virgin Birth and Womb Banks." Back then, it felt like a dream from science fiction—and today, it still is! But that doesn’t mean scientists have not tried their best. More than a decade ago, Professor Hung-Ching Liu at Cornell University made waves by growing endometrial tissue—the lining of the womb—in a lab. He even implanted a mouse embryo in this artificial uterus, making it grow! In another cool experiment, he used real cells from a woman's womb to create a scaffold-based artificial womb. Fertilized embryos from IVF were placed inside, and they started to implant just like in a natural womb. Sadly, the experiment stopped after 14 days, because rules don’t allow growing embryos longer outside the body. Exciting research is happening globally. In Japan, scientists grew goat fetuses inside prototype artificial wombs. Over in New South Wales, Australia, a special womb was tested to help shark babies develop safely. But wait, the story doesn't end here! Womb replacement surgeries are now a true miracle of modern medicine. By 2014, at least 16 women in Sweden and the UK had their wombs replaced—some even with wombs donated by their own mothers! The first baby from such a transplant was born in Sweden in 2014. Since then, over 135 womb transplants have been done worldwide—including India—leading to around 65 beautiful babies. India’s Galaxy Care Hospital has also scored a big win, successfully delivering babies from transplanted wombs. Today, artificial wombs mostly help tiny preterm babies. These babies float in "bio bags" filled with fluid similar to what natural wombs have. Connected to these bags is an artificial placenta that feeds the baby nutrients and oxygen through the umbilical cord. Imagine a tiny sea world just for newborns! Researchers are also exploring ways to create eggs and sperm using stem cells—another leap toward future baby-making options. So, while the dazzling idea of a pregnancy robot remains a dream for now, real science is quietly making magic happen behind the scenes. Who knows? One day, artificial wombs might change how we think about life and birth forever!

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Tags: Artificial womb, Uterine transplant, Pregnancy robot, Bio bag, Reproductive medicine, Stem cells,