Your unborn baby cast in bronze

[Still Waters]

A clinic is offering mothers bronze models of their unborn babies.

The London Ultrasound Centre, near Harley Street, is the first in the country to offer the service, which allows parents to 'celebrate' their babies in the womb.

A 3D printer uses ultrasound images to build a cast of the child. The models cost £1,200, take up to two-and-a-half weeks to make, and are created when the mother is at a safe stage of pregnancy at 24 weeks.

Doctors say the technology could also help improve survival rates for sick babies.

Accurate casts of birth defects could be taken in the womb then studied by surgeons before they operate.

The London Ultrasound Centre is headed by Darryl Maxwell, director of foetal medicine at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS trust, and Peter Demetris.

Mr Demetris told the Evening Standard the clinic is looking at a medical application for the baby-in-the-womb moulds.

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[Bill Hill]

Won't it hurt the women when they give birth?