What's up with this?

Shaw describes it as some kind of exclusive model, with only half a dozen in existence.

It was just calibrated for males, doesn't have to be male-specific model. Also.... probably done that way to create suspense for the "birthing" sequence, or to foreshadow Weyland's presence. The info doesn't counter the film, actually, it makes more sense that Shaw would specifically be asking for a c-section in the first place even though she's probably never experienced one before.

The c-section was nowhere near accurately portrayed. I've seen 4 performed in my life (actually in the room) and they have to go through many layers (skin, fat, muscle & uterus wall). Each requires separate cutting and separate stitching. [url=http://catalog.nucleusinc.com/imagescooked/6918W.jpg][img]http://catalog.nucleusinc.com/imagescooked/6918W.jpg[/img][/url] If the real procedure were actually shown, their would be audience members leaving the theater directly to the bathroom in mass. Especially the part after the removal where the uterus is pulled out of the body cavity and placenta removed.

But, it's on a space-ship. In an imaginary med-pod In an imaginary film Pulling out a freaking squid!

In Space everyone gets a C-section

I really want to applaude MVMNT. That is the best response I have read on the entire webite (and possibly the funniest). It's a freeking movie! It's symbolic. To make anything completely realistic in film is impossible. Filmakers have to make choices and they do it to change and shape our perceptions in ways they want to emphasize. If Picasso wanted to be realistic he would have just used a camera. I'm pretty sure that a major theme, if not the theme of this film, is something having to do with birth and creation, and that is the point of the med-pod scene, albeit with a little sci-fi horror twist thrown in to make it interesting. Who cares that there is this controversy over male and female units. Every good writer since Dickens knows how to heighten suspense and intensity in a narrative by making it more difficult for the protagonist to get out of their situation of peril, to come up with creative ways to overcome obstacles in spite of how they present themselves. Shaw figures out a way to save herself and not only does the director get the benefit of that scene but uses it to even greater effect by making it the source of another harrowing escape from the engineer in the end.

There aren't any male and female med-pods, just THE med-pod. They're unisex. The same med-pod can be calibrated for either male or female patients.

Also, can a woman just yank out her Umbilical cord like that without any complications or internal injuries?

No my point is the website which is put there by the people involved with making the movie, point out that there are only 12 available machines and it informs us that they all CAN do C-sections. But when Shaw requests one it says sorry this machine is only made for male patients. The website could have listed a million different operations the medpod could perform but it deliberately mentioned C-sections. Not to mention it was the last thing in the sentence about the procedures. But why did it say it couldn't be done in the movie?

In space, no one can hear you C-section

@ Antony As a physician I can corroborate your attestation of the multiple layers to the anterior abdominal wall incision & repair. Clearly, they did not demonstrate the slow and methodical process of contemporary abdominal incision closure in this 2hr 6min film. However, I must clarify that it would be highly unlikely for a uterus only 3months gravid to be large enough to pull out of the abdomen and, to be honest, Cuddles appeared closer to the size of a term infant than a 3month human fetus...maybe it grew while Shaw was unconscious from David's injection....This IS sci-fi so we can't get too hung-up on details. Any expert in any field will roll their eyes at Hollywood's portrayals of their art. Forensic investigators opinions of CSI, physicians opinions of Grey's Anatomy, etc. etc.

But she didn't get a C-section guys. Because the medpod said it wasn't calibrated for females, therefore unable to do C-section. She told the machine to "remove foreign body".