Baby making a burgeoning industry

Funnily enough, it was her high school's anti-teen pregnancy program that drew Kate Sutherland into the business of making babies.
When the teenager spied older girls at her Brisbane high school bringing crying infants to school, she was curious to find out more.
A Google search later confirmed her suspicion; that these seniors were mothers, albeit not in a conventional sense.

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Their 'children' were computerised infant simulators, products of the RealCare Baby program used by many Australian schools to help educate students about pregnancy.
Though intrigued, it would be five years before Ms Sutherland's initial brush with 'unreal' babies grew from a passing fancy into something more substantial.
Ms Sutherland, 25, is a certified newborner, a doll artisan who creates baby dolls from vinyl kits that are startling in their life-likeness.
And she is not alone – type "newborn doll" or "reborn baby" into eBay's search engine and a whole world of remarkably real, fake infants opens up.
The painstakingly hand-finished creations embody the whole spectrum of human appearance and ethnicity and, like infants up for adoption, the 'babies' come complete with birth certificate, a first name and, sometimes, umbilical cords and clamps.
Prospective 'parents' are equally as diverse, ranging from doll collectors to bereaved parents or counsellors looking to treat dementia patients, and creations from the world's best 'nurseries' can cost anywhere up to $2500.
“For some people it's a full time career,” Ms Sutherland says.
“But it's just a hobby for me.”
As the industry grows in Australia, so too has media attention, with some members of the community hesitant to give interviews for fear of being labelled 'freakish' or their babies 'creepy'.
"Some people are repulsed when they first encounter the dolls," said one Brisbane collector who did not wish to be named.
“But they don’t understand.”
The negative response can be explained by the "uncanny valley" hypothesis drawn by famed Japanese robotics professor Masahiro Mori in 1970.
Building on theories from Fentsch and Freud, the idea posits humans are able to empathise with ‘real’ human imitations up to a point when they become 'too real' and are considered overly "strange".
But long-time baby-maker Vynette Cernik believes the babies are "masterpieces", and is an ardent supporter of the “Reborn World'”.
Having founded her Queensland doll making studio and school over a decade ago, Ms Cernik's dolls have proved to be a lucrative business, though one with a downside that includes run-ins with the law.
In 2008, having spied what they believed to be an unconscious baby in a locked vehicle, Gympie police smashed through Ms Cernik's car window to 'rescue' what turned out to be one of her many life-like dolls.
It was only a brief hiccup in an otherwise happy history with the dolls that has seen Ms Cernik build one of Australia’s largest newborn businesses.
A dollmaker and parts importer, Ms Cernik said the craft had taken off locally in the last two years.
She said the reborning began in the United States in the early 1990s after plastic dolls began replacing traditional porcelain ones on toy shelves across the country.
In the early days, artisans would purchase industry models and remove the factory details, before laboriously repainting, detailing and finishing the dolls to create a more life-life product, hence 'reborning'.
“[Today] kits come in sizes from 6 to 36 inches, from premmie babies to walking toddlers,” Ms Cernik said.
“The dolls are all weighted to feel like a newborn baby in your arms and we now have mechanisms that can make the dolls look like they are moving or breathing, and voice boxes that can cry or coo to add even more realism.”

Ms Cernik said it had only been in the last two years that newborn dolls had gained popularity in Australia with demand fuelled by amateur crafts people or eager collectors who prized them as “hand painted masterpieces”.
But other adoptees were motivated by more personal reasons, she said.
“Some people buy them because they looked so much like their child when they were born and are just stunned by it,” Ms Cernik said.
“Some people buy them for a more personal reason like they have had a loss of a child and it is comforting to them.
“Some people just have that maternal instinct and enjoy having the dolls around [and] some people request that dolls be custom made in the likeness of their child as a baby but that child has now grown up.”
Arlene Parsons, who together with her husband Rob creates newborn moulds and dolls from their home studio in Jimboomba, said that her first 'baby' was gifted to a relation suffering from dementia.
Now a popular fixture at the relative's retirement village, 'Thomas' was one of many newborns used in 'doll therapy' which extended to grieving parents or infertile couples.
“The second newborn I made went to my neighbour who had been trying unsuccessfully for a baby for four or five years,” Mrs Parsons said.
“She's just had a little girl and was pregnant a few months after I gave the doll to her, so whether it was the doll or something else, it's just nice to see the family grow.”


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/lifestyle/baby-making-a-burgeoning-industry-20110706-1h2bp.html#ixzz1RTzpa92t