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I was thinking that in the perfect Utopian hi-tech future of Star Trek , there should be a simple and painless way of giving birth (or else they'd discovered that the difficulty and pain was a part of the process to be cherished)

But actually the only examples of women giving birth I could think of involved highly stressful situations -

  • In TNG episode, Disaster, Keiko gave birth as we'd expect from real life, but then they were trapped in Ten Forward without access to the medical facilities
  • And in the movie Star Trek (#11 - the first Abrams one), Kirk's mother gave birth to him while they were abandoning the ship, also a stressful environment.

Are there any examples of someone giving birth in a relaxed environment with proper maternity care so we can see how the process is supposed to be handled in the future? Particularly within the Federation.

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    I always thought babies came from replicators.
    – Adamant
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 10:08
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    @Adamant - When a mommy warp conduit and a daddy warp conduit love each other very much....
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 10:09
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    This might help: memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Childbirth
    – Adamant
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 10:10
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    It seems that it can be as easy as literally transporting the fetus out.
    – Adamant
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 10:11
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    That's what I said. ;)
    – Adamant
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 10:12

2 Answers 2

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Troi gives birth in the episode TNG: The Child. The lights are dimmed and she's sitting in a sort of 'birthing chair' with stirrups. Since they've had at least a few hours to prepare for her arrival this is, we can reasonably assume, the normal birthing procedure for human women in the Federation.

The original screenplay also indicates that pain, pain relief and trauma are all still part of the normal process of giving birth in the 24th Century along with ensuring that the mother remain awake and alert in order to experience the birth.

PULASKI: (continuing) I'll give you something for the pain. It won't in any way diminish the experience.

...

[They now have Troi in position in the birthing chair. Worf and the security team enter and take up their positions as Pulaski and her Assistant prepare for the delivery.]

...

[WE WILL LAY THIS OUT, BASED ON HOW A CHILD IS BORN ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH CENTURY ENTERPRISE.]

...

PULASKI: I have delivered dozens of babies. But none like this. There was no pain, no trauma. It was effortless for both of them.

enter image description here


We see another Federation birth (albeit from an earlier era and on-planet) in Star Trek V. Spock's mother gives birth lying on a big rock in a cave with a priestess to act as midwife. The film script indicates that there's no modern technology involved and no pain relief.

[They turn and find themselves beneath the hanging stalagtites of a cave. Torchlight throws weird shadows on the walls. The shadows depict a woman in labor, attended by a Vulcan High Priestess. Ceremonial drums pound a throbbing pulse. The woman lets out another scream. It reverberates throughout the cavern.]

...

[Spock's mother, the young earthwoman AMANDA, lies on a rough pallet, her legs spread beneath her robes, her distended stomach lifting. Her only attendant is THE HIGH PRIESTESS who intones the Vulcan birthrights.]


You might wish to note that while Fetal Transport does exist, it's (presumably) generally avoided because it can lead to post-birth complications in the child. In the single case that we see it on-screen, the transport apparently causes young Naomi Wildman to suffer a deadly (albeit treatable) condition.

WILDMAN: Is she all right?

EMH: The transport caused a slight hemocythemic imbalance, but we'll stabilise her cell membranes with osmotic pressure therapy.

VOY: Deadlock

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  • Did they teleport it?
    – Adamant
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 10:14
  • @Adamant - Nope. It just popped out with zero pain.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 10:15
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    Not to mention that that birth from Troi was anything but ordinary. She gave birth after being pregnant for less than a day, and the characters commented about unusually smooth and completely painless the birthing was. Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 22:47
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    @Valorum I don't think there's evidence that it affected the procedures that Sickbay followed, but it's not a good example because no matter what Sickbay had done, that particular birth would have been smooth, painless, and stress free af because of the what the alien who was being birthed was doing. Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 23:08
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    @Kai - I've added some additional info regarding what Pulaski considers to be "normal" (e.g pain, pain relief, physical trauma and maintaining the mother's consciousness and alertness so they can 'experience' the birth).
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 26, 2019 at 0:11
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There is also this episode:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Begotten_(episode)

Which depicts the Bajoran childbirth process (Kira is a surrogate for O'Brien and Keiko). In this depiction, the stress and difficulty of childbirth seems more related to the inability of the men in Kira's life to cope with the situation than the birthing process itself.

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    Kira isn't a Federation citizen and this appears to be a traditional Bajoran birthing process (which is why I excluded it from my answer). I also didn't include Kes giving birth in a traditional Ocampan manner in VOY: Before and After
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 14:39
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    While Bajor is not in the Federation, Kira has access to Federation technology. Surely Bashir would have said something if she was deliberately choosing something that would involve more risk than necessary, given his friendship with Miles. And there's no sign that Kira's biology is as different from human as Kes's is. The question doesn't explicitly ask for human (though I would assume they're looking for species where the process is fundamentally the some as for us), and doesn't completely rule out non-Federation processes.
    – RDFozz
    Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 18:31
  • While that's not untrue, I think we can rule out non-Fed species giving birth in their own traditional manner
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 26, 2019 at 10:37

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