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Hospitals: No Candid Camera (Banning Videotaping of Childbirth)
Newsweek/MSNBC.com ^ | 2/17/06 | Karen Springen

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: birth; lawsuit; litigious; video
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To each his own, but when is the appropriate time to whip out a video of your wife having an episiotomy?
1 posted on 02/17/2006 5:05:30 AM PST by Airborne1986
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To: Airborne1986
My wife would shove the camera in my mouth if I tried to film her. I don't blame her. On another note, I was born at Swedish Covenant. Whoopie.
2 posted on 02/17/2006 5:08:23 AM PST by satchmodog9 (Most people stand on the tracks and never even hear the train coming)
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To: Airborne1986

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.


3 posted on 02/17/2006 5:08:25 AM PST by Chickensoup (The water in the pot is getting warmer, froggies.The water in the pot is getting warmer, froggies.)
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To: Airborne1986
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.

Something tells me, even without the videotape, she won't soon forget it.

4 posted on 02/17/2006 5:09:51 AM PST by edpc
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To: Airborne1986

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.


5 posted on 02/17/2006 5:11:14 AM PST by kevkrom ("...no one has ever successfully waged a war against stupidity" - Orson Scott Card)
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To: satchmodog9

"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.


6 posted on 02/17/2006 5:12:46 AM PST by Airborne1986 (Well, you can do what you want to us. But we're not going to sit here while you badmouth the U.S.A.)
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To: edpc
LOL..."This was going to be our memory forever,"

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!

7 posted on 02/17/2006 5:13:30 AM PST by gr8eman (Everybody is a rocket scientist...until launch day!)
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To: kevkrom

If anyone forgets their camera in the delivery room they can recreate the same effect at home by covering the baby in cottage cheese.


8 posted on 02/17/2006 5:16:20 AM PST by Rebelbase (President Bush is a Texas jackass when it comes to Border security .)
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To: Airborne1986
Tripods can fall into the "sterile field,"....

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.

9 posted on 02/17/2006 5:16:24 AM PST by edpc
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To: kevkrom

"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.


10 posted on 02/17/2006 5:17:41 AM PST by Airborne1986 (Well, you can do what you want to us. But we're not going to sit here while you badmouth the U.S.A.)
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To: Airborne1986

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!


11 posted on 02/17/2006 5:27:33 AM PST by Tax-chick (My remark was stupid, and I'm a slave of the patriarchy. So?)
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To: satchmodog9
On another note, I was born at Swedish Covenant.

I too was born at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago (before videotape, March 7, 1953).

12 posted on 02/17/2006 5:29:12 AM PST by Charles Henrickson (Born and raised on the north side of the city.)
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To: Airborne1986
I would have died of embarrassment if I was ever caught on film giving birth. Good grief, ranks up there with filming your pap smears...count me out.
13 posted on 02/17/2006 5:30:10 AM PST by SouthernFreebird
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To: Airborne1986

I honestly don't see who in their right mind would want to record a childbirth.


14 posted on 02/17/2006 5:31:33 AM PST by NapkinUser
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To: satchmodog9

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! :)


15 posted on 02/17/2006 5:31:59 AM PST by TexConfederate1861
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To: Airborne1986
Obstetricians are among the most frequently sued specialty in medicine.In many states,an OB/GYN can be sued for a delivery performed 21 years earlier.

There are tens of thousands of John Edwards-es out there.

16 posted on 02/17/2006 5:32:03 AM PST by Gay State Conservative
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To: Airborne1986
>> To each his own, but when is the appropriate time to whip out a video of your wife having an episiotomy?

When is the appropriate time to whip out the video of the kid's conception?

17 posted on 02/17/2006 5:33:13 AM PST by vikingd00d
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To: Tax-chick

I assisted in my daughter's birth. And LOVED every minute of it. I even got to cut the cord :)


18 posted on 02/17/2006 5:34:03 AM PST by TexConfederate1861
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To: Airborne1986

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?


19 posted on 02/17/2006 5:48:08 AM PST by Ro_Thunder ("Other than ending SLAVERY, FASCISM, NAZISM and COMMUNISM, war has never solved anything")
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To: Airborne1986

In suit-happy America, who can blame the hospital for taking measures to protect itself?


20 posted on 02/17/2006 5:55:33 AM PST by MarxSux
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