LANDSTUHL, Germany — The miracle of childbirth can morph into a nightmare for those dealing with Dusty Petunia, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s newest and most problematic pregnancy.

Dusty isn’t a woman, and she’s not really pregnant. Dusty is a mop-headed, blond-haired, life-sized mannequin that can experience a variety of pregnancy emergencies on command.

Officially known as a "mobile obstetric emergencies simulator," Dusty is a $25,000 piece of machinery that — through computer controls — can throw curve ball after curve ball at the Landstuhl staff during training sessions. She can do a lot more than those old baby dolls with realistic basic bodily functions.

Dusty can give birth to a plastic baby that has its own umbilical cord and placenta. She can bleed — profusely. She can have a feet-first "breech birth." Her baby can get a shoulder stuck on the way out.

And she can erupt into seizures, which is what Dusty did Thursday morning during her first training session with about 20 Landstuhl staffers. With more than 1,000 babies delivered at Landstuhl last year, the hospital is fertile training ground.

Senior Airman Jarimaris Ortiz, a medical technician with Landstuhl’s obstetrics clinic, began the scenario by telling Dusty she would be performing some tests. "Hey," Ortiz said. "How you doing?"

Shayla Holland, a nurse practitioner at Landstuhl and trainer for the exercise, played the role of Dusty’s voice.

"I’m not feeling very well," Holland said. "I’ve had a headache for the last 24 hours. I just feel awful, and look how swollen I am, and my head, it’s like pounding so bad."

Then, the seizure began. Dusty’s limbs didn’t flail. Spittle didn’t fly. Nobody tried to shove a wallet in her mouth. She just rocked rhythmically — for minutes.

Ortiz and a handful of others placed an oxygen mask over Dusty’s nose and mouth and rolled her on her side. As the seizure continued, Ortiz and other trainees shouted out the different steps they would take — such as beckoning doctors to come and help, preparing to move her to the labor and delivery ward.

After about five minutes, Dusty’s seizure stopped and the exercise ended.

"I thought it was great because we don’t normally see any of this happen, so it was great practice," Ortiz said.

Landstuhl is one of several military hospitals to recently receive such a simulator. In addition to the mother and baby, the system has a mobile cart with monitors that display the vital signs for the mother and baby, plus video equipment and an electronic debriefing and evaluation system.

The purpose of the training is to ensure the staff knows what to do in the event of an emergency with a pregnant patient.

"This is not to point out who’s bad, who’s good," Holland said. "This is to take well-intended people and to make us better at reacting. It’s not meant to belittle people. It’s meant to make us a better team."