For parents who have buried infants born too soon, a device like the AquaWomb is a miracle in waiting – and an impossible choice For parents who have buried infants born too soon, a device like the AquaWomb is a miracle in waiting – and an impossible choice B eth Schafer lay in a hospital bed, bracing for the birth of her son. The first contractions rippled through her body before she felt remotely ready. She knew, with a mother’s pit-of-the-stomach intuition, that her baby was not ready either.