3D Printing your unborn child is a weird thing you can do now

Not keen on this, not keen on this at all. Having a child is spooky enough without putting a life-size exact replica of the foetus on the mantelpiece.

But me not being ‘keen’ on something will not stop it from happening, will it? Which is why a Russian company with the ghoulish name of Embryo 3D is going ahead with a terrifying scheme to print off models of unborn children, in a pointed and barbed attempt to specifically disrupt my sleep patterns.

Essentially, if you want this, then they use ultrasound images to create a 3D model of your child, and then they print it off using a clicking, whirring machine in an entirely unsettling process that I wish never to see again. Here, look:

(or don’t, don’t look)

Ivan Gridin, the founder of Embryo 3D, came up with the technology to help his friend during pregnancy. He said:

“I have a friend [who] was worried about the health of her child and wanted to see it.

“She had an ultrasound several times, but it wasn’t enough. I was fond of new technologies at that time and 3D-printing. And I said ‘let’s print it’.

“Earlier we printed only from plastic, but now we are able to make plaster models and cover them with precious metals.”

So you can have a gold one, presumably - bet everyone will be jealous of that at your next dinner party. Nobody will be turning that around to face the wall because it’s “looking” at them.

A recipient of the treatment, Yuliana Recu, told International Business Times: 

“We ordered a 3D model of our child, which is in my belly now.

“It is a weird feeling, the child hasn’t been born yet but you can touch it and feel it as it is.”

Of course, there is actually a good, real, important reason behind this tech, and it’s that it can be used to aid doctors in assessing abnormalities. VR tech can also be used to reveal even more in-depth images of an unborn child, which even stretches to internal images, such as the heartbeat. So it is actually a good thing. Albeit an incredibly creepy good thing.

The physical, tangible models seemingly being popular with parents who also want a keepsake of their baby, one that doesn’t cry and is much easier to look after.

Either way, think I’ll leave it - my bronze judo trophy from when I was six is all I need to impress my mates down the pub. 

(Image: RT)