The Physics of New Life: The (failed) Apparatus for Facilitating Child Birth

In 1965, Charlotte and George Blonsky were granted a patent for an invention known as “The Apparatus for Facilitating Child Birth.” What’s so bad about “The Apparatus” you ask? It is your lucky day, you’re about to learn about a 60’s solution to extended labor, a process that has plagued women across the globe since the birth of humankind (pun intended). 

In the apparatus, the pregnant woman is first strapped onto a platform much like the flat surface of a merry-go-round. Her hands and feet are tied into place, along with a strap across her forehead and mid-section. Sounds pretty strange, right? Well, it only gets weirder. After being strapped in, the real fun (or terror) starts. The merry-go-round platform beneath the woman begins to spin. By using the properties of centrifugal force, the idea is that the birthing process will be quicker, with the baby ending up in a small, mesh bag once born.

Think of a tilt-a-whirl at an amusement park and the spinning of which causes riders to seem to “stick to” the walls of the ride. The force acting on riders is centrifugal force, which acts outwardly upon objects moving in a circular or curved path. The difference between centripetal and centrifugal force is shown in the diagram below. Now, instead of being a kid in an amusement park, imagine being a very pregnant woman in labor. You’re strapped in, and away you go. The same centrifugal force caused by the spinning of the tilt-a-whirl brings new life into the world. A beautiful sight isn’t it? Not quite.

Instead of spinning at around 3g’s, like the common tilt-a-whirl, the “Apparatus for Facilitating Child Birth” operates at around 7g’s. For reference, humans can withstand around 5g’s before passing out. As explained in the video below, 7g’s is around the same acceleration of a high-speed jet. Although the proposed physics of this device seems intact, and hypothetically birth should be quicker as a result of the centrifugal force pulling the baby from the womb, more than one serious problem is apparent with this device. One apparent issue would be death and pure terror for both mother and child, but alas Charlotte and George Blonsky went as far as to make a full sketch and prototype for the apparatus.

Luckily, only one prototype was ever created, and it was never actually used in labor or delivery of a child. Despite the obvious failure of the apparatus, all inventions, and scientists in general, must fail over and over and over again to ultimately find any success. It is these failures which teach us about ourselves and about scientific inquiry (maybe about some physics too, if we’re lucky!).