Attract, repel: lifelike dolls are collector cult

By Sophie Taylor

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Their chests rise and fall and you can hear a tiny heartbeat, but these babies for sale over the Internet are not alive.

"Reborn babies" are disconcertingly life-like baby dolls carefully crafted in vinyl, which have become swiftly popular mainly with collectors, but also with nostalgic grandparents and grieving parents.

Made and collected by an online community of enthusiasts, they are painted several times to create the mottled color of newborn skin, have mohair hair and eyelashes, and are weighted to make them feel as heavy as human babies.

Fans of the hobby, who call it "reborning", are mostly women and increasingly guarded about discussing it since media reports highlighted their purchase by bereaved parents, prompting some to portray the hobby as macabre.

"Cuddle therapy" is what one reborning Website calls the hobby -- the dolls' bodies can be fitted with electronic devices that mimic a heartbeat and breathing.

British department store Harrods -- whose motto is "Everything for Everybody Everywhere" -- describes them as "a bit too life-like" to stock, and collectors themselves say the dolls can cause feelings of intense unease, even disgust.

"I pick them up and I change them and I do hold them like a baby now and again -- it's relaxing," said doll-owner Gill, a 50-year-old grandmother who asked to remain anonymous because of the way reborning has been portrayed in the media.

Reborners say their hobby began in the United States in the early 1990s, with dolls becoming more and more realistic over time. Media coverage helped spread the idea to other countries, mainly Britain and Australia.

Cathy Newcombe, who makes the dolls and runs reborning Website Reborn Babies UK, said counselors were increasingly looking into the therapeutic benefits of holding reborn babies.

"The act of holding the doll may have a role in releasing a 'feel-good' hormone," Newcombe said.

But not all react in this way.

"You get this repulsion from some because it looks so life-like and they just see a dead baby," said Sue, 56, who bought her first doll in June.

"Looking at my reborn I've never seen a dead baby --- she has too much color in order to be dead."

TOO NICHE

The term "reborn" is used to distinguish custom-made baby dolls from those mass-produced in a factory, says Deborah King, who took up doll-making as a hobby three years ago and now sells dolls via Reborn Baby.