“Baby think it over®” !

One evening in 1993, an unemployed aerospace engineer was watching a public service programme about sex education for teenagers. Teen girls were told to carry around bags of flour to remind them of the care that babies needed.

He remarked to his wife that bags of flour do not wake people at night. "So make one that does," she replied. So Richard Jurmain worked out the details of his idea and, with his wife Mary, patented it as US 5443388, later reissued as US Re 36776, my Patent of the Month.

The patent begins by commenting that teen age parents give reasons for becoming pregnant such as "babies are so cute", "I wanted attention", and "I needed someone to love and love me back". But, the inventors comment, “Romantic feelings toward having a baby of one's own almost never include an understanding of the burdens of caring for a baby”. Each year in the United States, 20% of sexually active teenage girls become pregnant.

The simulators are scale replicas of 3 month old babies. The weight is about 3.4 kg, they are anatomically correct in male and female versions, and they are available in different skin pigmentations. They mimic the unpredictable behaviour of a baby. The “carer” has to respond to the crying by turning a key in the doll for as long as it would take to feed, bathe or change nappies. The patent makes excellent reading, with talk of crying logic chips and the like.

At first he made 40 himself, using his garage as a workshop. Orders started to come in and he made a manufacturing contract with an organisation which used physically handicapped workers. Besides being the first baby simulator, Baby Think It Over® is the leading brand.
Both in America and in Britain the idea of introducing the simulator to classes has gained ground. For example, for more than 10 years, caring for the simulator has been a condition for graduating from Palomar High School. Student reaction has been described as “encouraging”, with a typical response after a weekend being "I don't want babies, I'm gonna wait.”

The “RealCare Baby” is a more sophisticated version of the original and aims to create a more realistic experience. The simulator responds to rough or incorrect handling by crying. Rather than simulating activities, carers are required to feed, rock and burp the baby, change nappies and support its head. The babies can be set to “easy”, “normal” or “cranky” mode. Removing the battery pack isn’t a solution: if a student does that, the registers the abuse before shutting down.  
The UK agent is Life Choice, with the “starter pack” for the RealCare Baby costing £353. Other models include a simulator that demonstrates the effects of a mother's drug abuse and another that illustrates the effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

A patented improvement was US 6089873 by Mary Jurmain and John Fusi. The doll has a floppy neck which must be supported during handling, and incorrect holding is again recorded for later analysis.
The Jurmain company, Realityworks™, Inc. now has 28 employees at its Wisconsin base. Jurmain maintains that the main lesson learned from Baby is not about values but rather "sleeplessness". Indeed, Sandi Toksvig has said that when her daughter was studying for a GCSE in child development “having this screaming artificial child was the greatest advert for contraception you could ever give a 16-year old”.