Posted on 02/17/2006 5:05:29 AM PST by Airborne1986
Newsweek Feb. 20, 2006 issue - Viviana Chapman, who's due to give birth on March 1, was looking forward to capturing the event on camera. "This was going to be our memory forever," she says. But Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, like a growing number of the 2,778 U.S. hospitals with delivery rooms, is turning down patients' requests to videotape births. The official reason: privacy and safety concerns. But some say the real reason is that hospitals are afraid the tapes will be used against them in malpractice suits. Though videos rarely yield evidence, Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 2004 banned cameras during births, in part because some patients with tapes threatened lawsuits. "It doesn't mean that malpractice occurred," says hospital spokeswoman Kelly Sullivan. "But [the tape] can be used as a weapon in manipulating a pain-and-suffering award that shouldn't be awarded." Doctors say the no-movie-camera policies benefit patients. Tripods can fall into the "sterile field," says Laura Riley, director of labor and delivery at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital, adding that many doctors find filmmaking distracting and feel uncomfortable being taped. Privacy laws favor doctors' rights to be camera shy. ....
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
To each his own, but when is the appropriate time to whip out a video of your wife having an episiotomy?
Right after dessert is served while passing out coffee.
Personally, I think that all meetings with lawyers should be videotaped.
Something tells me, even without the videotape, she won't soon forget it.
Thankfully, our hospital had no problems with me bringing in the still or video cameras -- they requested only that I did not film the actual delivery. I still have several good shots of the baby from the initial weigh-in, etc., and video of going to the nursery after the delivery.
"My wife would shove the camera in my mouth if I tried to film her."
Been there. When my wife was in Labor and Delivery having our first child, I suggested taking out the camera (just for a head/shoulder picture). It was one of the few times I have heard her swear.
Imagine that you are 16 years old and you meet a nice girl, talke her home for dinner and after dessert Dad whips out a video of you being born. Some people have no class. This means all of you voyeurs out there!
If anyone forgets their camera in the delivery room they can recreate the same effect at home by covering the baby in cottage cheese.
Considering the area in question and the stuff that comes out with the baby, the camera's sterility should be the least of their concerns.
"Thankfully, our hospital had no problems with me bringing in the still or video cameras -- they requested only that I did not film the actual delivery."
While the story did not say that, I think that is what was going on. And I don't think it is really new. I remember being told by a nurse 12 years ago that pictures are OK but the doctor did not want to be photographed - other than a posed picture with the mother and child after it was all over.
Gag, retch, spew. Go to the farm and watch a cow give birth, if you absolutely must see this sort of thing. Ugh.
One of the few good things about being the one having the babies is that you don't have to see it!
I too was born at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago (before videotape, March 7, 1953).
I honestly don't see who in their right mind would want to record a childbirth.
When my daughter was born in 97, I was going to videotape the birth....until my wife threatened to shove the camera into a most uncomfortable part of my anatomy if I didn't turn it OFF! :)
There are tens of thousands of John Edwards-es out there.
When is the appropriate time to whip out the video of the kid's conception?
I assisted in my daughter's birth. And LOVED every minute of it. I even got to cut the cord :)
The 'sterile field' thing is a load of poop. Oh my, what did people do when they were having kids 100 years ago? 200 years ago?
*IF* a couple wants to video the birth, they should, period. isn't it THIER PRIVACY that should be looked after?
In suit-happy America, who can blame the hospital for taking measures to protect itself?
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