Star Trek, Star Wars, and Fictional Futuristic Births

 "I wonder if, when a person is pregnant in Star Trek, they use a transporter to beam the baby out of the mother," my husband mused. We'd been watching our way through the 1993 delight that is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. 

I laughed, we continued the episode, and then I kept wondering: how does something as futuristic and supposedly utopian as the Star Trek Federation handle birth?

After some research, I was somewhat intrigued to discover that an answer to that question is complicated.

The show Star Trek: Voyager did reveal that Fetal Transport (delivering a baby via a transporter) actually does exist in the Star Trek universe, but it is used only in extreme emergencies because it can supposedly lead to post-birth complications in the child. In every other instance of childbirth within the show's utopian Federation, however, it appears to vary only slightly if at all from many births and birth choices in our modern era. 

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Child," a mysteriously nine-months-pregnant-in-24-hours Troi is offered some mild pain killers for her birth, but otherwise just a normal 'lean back in a sick bay bed, breathe, and push' scenario is shown. And that's the most ideal birth shown in a Federation environment; in most references and scenes, birth is accompanied by or paralleled with trauma. In the J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot movie, Kirk is born while the ship his father serves on is under attack. Along with the swelling movie score, the wails of the spaceship alarms are intercut with the screams of Kirk's birthing mother, clearly a deliberate choice by Abrams for a desired aesthetic effect. 

Outside of the Federation, Star Trek depicts many "alien" cultures who revere an all-natural child birth. For example, in Star Trek V, Spock's mother gives birth to him on Vulcan inside a dark cave with a priestess as a birth coach. She screams loudly as she gives birth, which is then transitioned into the screams of baby Spock, its purpose in the movie being to show that pain is a natural part of all lives. In Deep Space Nine, the Bajorans essentially have a cultural philosophy that mirrors wholesale quotations from the all-natural-birth-Bible Ina May's Guide to Childbirth: "giving birth is all about being relaxed" with no pain medication or intervention, all so the birth can be a truly spiritual experience and the mother can feel both the needs of the baby and the effects of her own endorphins. Both of these "advanced" and "spiritual" cultures are actively shown as rejecting the level of medical science available in their time for intentionally tech-free and all-natural births (again, did I mention that the Vulcans seem to go as far, even for important diplomats and governmental leaders, as to give birth in a cave?).

There is something interesting and odd to me that, with the Federation at least, Earth has supposedly moved beyond money, beyond war, and beyond other kinds of strife, but women's pregnancy and medical health has essentially remained the same in this future with only the slight upgrade in terms of emergency C-section ("If they use the transporter, do they call it an emergency T-section?" my husband wondered). It just generally makes me wonder about the views or philosophies in terms of gender and childbirth of those who helped create the different iterations of this franchise. What, to them, was a "utopian" or "evolved" childbirth, and why does it look so similar to today when so much else has changed in the Star Trek world?

However, the lack of progress in Star Trek is still far preferable to the other main sci-fi darling with "Star" in its name. Star Wars is an absolute travesty for women's health and childbirth. Just absolutely and shockingly horrendous. 

Now, I know that Star Wars isn't exactly "futuristic" in a literal sense; after all, it takes place "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." However, the retro-futuristic aesthetic contains technology far more advanced than our own, such as faster-than-light travel, sentient droids will complete AI personalities, floating hover-crafts including giant barges, and even planet-sized space station super weapons. 

The medical field in Star Wars is especially notable for some of its futuristic technologies, such as Bacta tanks and Stim packs that, according to Wookieepedia, can be "used to immediately treat a wide array of injuries." We see Luke Skywalker treated for severe frostbite and a Wampa mauling in a Bacta tank in Empire Strikes Back, for example. If something cannot be healed with these almost magical fluids, then cybernetic technology steps in and whole limbs, eyes, and even sections of the brain can be replaced with robotic equivalents. 

Which is why it is fairly incredible that the one pregnancy that is featured in any Star Wars film is handled so badly. I am, of course, referring to the pregnancy of Padmé Amidala. 

Now, I am a passionate Star Wars fan; not only was my wedding lightly Star Wars themed, but I am currently planning a not-so-subtle Star Wars nursery for my (currently in utero) child. I also know that it's old hat for even the most enthusiastic of Star Wars fans to complain about the prequels; I won't cause any significant clutching of pearls when I say that something about the prequel trilogy is Very Not Good. 

However, this is an issue with the prequels that goes far beyond just slightly cringy writing. Through George Lucas' lack of details or care about Padmé's pregnancy, he accidentally created a horrible universe in Star Wars where prenatal healthcare exists somewhere between shockingly incompetent and actually dystopian.

Let's start with the revelation of Padmé's pregnancy. Her own discovery that she is pregnant happens off screen, but she learns that she is expecting before she is showing much, so presumably within the first trimester. At that point, some sort of test was surely done so that she has this news to tell Anakin, her secret Jedi husband. 

It is worth noting here that Padmé Amidala is a senator and a former queen of the planet Naboo, and she is currently living in the capital of the Republic, which is a large city with presumably a wide range of options for medical care. She is a significant figure with many political connections who should not only have rather good healthcare but likely some of the best in the galaxy. 

Which is why it is so notable that she seems to receive no tests or information about her pregnancy for the rest of the film. 

The clearest evidence for this is the constant references to "the baby" or "the child." By the end of the movie (or even sooner for those who know the original trilogy), the audience learns that Padmé is actually pregnant with twins, the future protagonists of the original Star Wars trilogy, Luke and Leia. However, this is a revelation that occurs literally at the very end of the film. 

Shown: a modern ultrasound showing twins,
something clearly not done in Star Wars

The first time there is a reference to "the baby" is when Padmé is trying to comfort Anakin after he has a terrible dream about her dying in childbirth (more on that later). In this scene, she asks him, "And the baby?" in response to hearing of her own dream death. She is showing quite a bit at this point in the film and looks to be about six months pregnant at the least. However, she refers "the baby" as a singular entity, something the most basic of ultrasounds or even blood test would have indicated not to be the case. Anakin does this again in what looks to be much later in her pregnancy, perhaps when she is about eight months along. When he rushes back to Padmé after the attack on the Jedi temple, he says he's returned to see that both she "and the baby are safe." Again, a singular usage of "the baby." Right before she gives birth, Padmé pleads with Anakin to come back to the Light Side and help her raise "our child." Padmé looks about ready to pop here, and both she and Anakin are still completely convinced that she is only caring only one child. At this stage, no one apparently has apparently even tried to listen for a fetal heartbeat and been surprised to hear two.

Now, there is a possibility that the secret nature of Padmé's marriage to Anakin affected what healthcare she sought out. According to the novelization of Episode III, Padmé kept her pregnancy a secret from most of the public by wearing loose, flowing gowns and keeping staff limited around her (she spends most of the film alone or with C-3P0 rather than with her many potential staff members or attendants). Thus, it's possible that any medical tests were kept limited to keep the circle of knowledge small. However, given that medical droids exist in this universe (two of which ultimately end up delivering her babies at the end of the film) and all Star Wars films are consistent on the fact that droid data can be wiped, the need for secrecy really doesn't fully explain the complete lack of medical information about her pregnancy. 

This seems especially crazy in the context of Anakin's dream. As a Jedi knight, Anakin isn't a stranger to the concept of prophetic dreams and visions; in fact, he's already had a few in this prequel trilogy. Padmé at first tries to comfort him by saying it is only a dream, but (after what appears to be up to months of his worrying about it) she seems to accept his fear, but responds merely with, "I'm not going to die in childbirth, Ani. I promise you." Okay... so what did anyone do to help make this promise a reality? There are no mentions of birth plans, medical care, or even a follow up on what conditions could lead to a traumatic or life-threatening pregnancy. Without any kind of mention of what she is doing to respond to his dream (which, again, in this universe is very real and the Force as a tool of prophesy is well established), it just seems like Padmé is expecting to have everything go fine just because, well, she wants it to.

Which brings us to the actual birth, which is so confusing and hard to watch for a number of reasons (most of it is poor writing, but again poor writing with horrifying implications). 

According to the novelization again, Padmé had planned on giving birth in a pre-selected remote location on her home-world of Naboo. However, after hearing about her husband turning to the Dark Side and killing a lot of defenseless "younglings" (literally children), she is understandably distraught and reroutes her ship to the planet of Mustafar to confront Anakin. Said confrontation leads to him force-choking her in a fit of rage, and she collapses, causing her to be in and out of consciousness as she and Obi-Wan Kenobi travel via spacecraft to their allies on the asteroid base of Polis Massa. There, she is then transferred to a medical center, where the medical droid explains she is dying without any clear medical explanation. 

One theory offered in the film is just that she has "lost the will to live" after Anakin's betrayal, though some fan theories have also posited that it's possibly the effects of the Dark Side of the Force and the emperor's powers. Sure. Whatever. Regardless, the end result is that she's dying for reasons, and the droid explains they must "operate to save the babies." This plural usage is the first time anyone seems to have learned that Padme is carrying twins.  

What actual operation that is conducted to remove the twins is a little unclear; one would assume something akin to a C-section, though the little medical guard they have to cover Padme's lower stomach and pelvis seems to be in a strange place if they are removing the babies from her lower abdomen. 

It's possible they made some sort of opening or incision lower, but one thing is clear: Padmé feels quite a bit of it. She cries and screams through the procedure, more like she is supposed to be actively giving birth rather than operated on. 

Then, she dies. 

Padmé spends her last moments on the medical bay table, still presumably cut open in some way, murmuring that there is still good in Anakin... and then just closes her eyes and passes away. Before this point, no one seems to make any kind of attempt to let her touch her children, to take any kind of further action to save her, or really do anything besides shrug and say, "Oh well, I suppose she has lost the will to live. No further explanation or investigation necessary." 

I especially find it so incredible that she never gets to hold her children during the time between their birth and her death; they are only held by the medical droid and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The whole scenario is just so strange. Though I know the actual explanation is likely just a lack of interest on George Lucas' part in going into detail about Padme's pregnancy and care, it's still a significant part of the movie and the result is a strange universe where medical robots can do a full body scan in presumably mere minutes to determine that there is "nothing physically wrong" with a person, but only if that person is in distress in a medical center and not just being seen preventatively or over the normal course of a pregnancy. 

If, like the Bajorans in Star Trek, Naboo's culture stressed a lack of medical intervention or testing during a pregnancy, that would be one thing, but since that information is never offered and there's no discussion as to why Padmé is conducting herself differently than other expecting parents, we as an audience are left to potentially presume that this lack of information, medical care, and support in the prenatal period is normal. 

Similarly, while the mysterious reason behind Padmé's death may be unusual, the complete disregard that Obi-Wan and ally Bail Organa have for Padmé's suffering and death is notable. No one tries to fight for her or advocate for more testing; if it is about a "will to live," no one attempts to even talk to her or offer her comfort. The only concern is for the two (one up until this point unknown) babies and their broader importance to the story. In the end, no one seemed to care about or prioritize Padmé's health throughout her whole pregnancy journey, including Padmé herself.

Honestly, it all makes me wonder: where is the science-fiction universe that has created technology that goes far enough beyond transporters, warp drives, and laser swords, one that has used its futuristic technologies, advancements, and utopian ideals to make things better and safer for its pregnant people? What are the odds that someone has planned or created one of those that will be as significant to pop culture as Star Trek and Star Wars?

As Han Solo is fond of saying: "Never tell me the odds."