Hospitals: No Candid Camera (Banning Videotaping of Childbirth)

Newsweek/MSNBC.com ^ | 2/17/06 | Karen Springen

[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. ....

[kitkat]

***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.***

Me, too! I believe it was Ann Landers who wrote about the woman invited to a party where a birth film was shown. She watched in horror, and when she was expected to comment, said only "Whos's your barber?"

[Tax-chick]

My husband has been there for all 8 of ours, and cut a few cords, too. But I still think it's gross :-).

[beef]

I am SOOOO glad I was born before all of this nonsense.

[YankeeGirl]

Good grief, ranks up there with filming your pap smears...count me out.

I'm with you. Had three kids and no desire to even look at the mirror they put for the moms to watch. I'd just as soon watch my own appendix being taken out. Yeech!

I waited for the docs to do their thing then give me the baby. Hubby watched and was giving me play-by-play until I asked him to knock it off.

You're disheveled, messy, uncomfortable and have little dignity left at that point, who would want it recorded!

[wallcrawlr]

What good is it for me to videotape the wall?...thats all I could handle staring at during that process.

[ccmay]

*IF* a couple wants to video the birth, they should, period. isn't it THIER PRIVACY that should be looked after?

Nope. If they want to do that, they should give birth at home like a couple of hippies.

-ccm

[AxelPaulsenJr]

This means all of you voyeurs out there!

I can see you...........

[sweet_diane]

We chose to not video tape our daughters births, but didn't audio tape our first, which she gets a kick outa hearing. A nurse got up towards my head and took a pic right as the doc lifted her up, still attached. The doc is beaming (I loved him!) and she's screaming bloody murder!

As luck would have it, the TV is on and visable over the docs shoulder, which I had on General Hosp (I was a fan at the time). The scene was a close up of Robin Bernard, a girl I went to high school with (older sis to Crystal Bernard of the show Wings). Kinda neat and way better than graphic video! lol

[sweet_diane]

oops... we DID audio tape our first daughters birth. sorry

[VOA]

Doctors say the no-movie-camera policies benefit patients.

Having been on the receiving end of some incredible goofs by
MDs...I have my suspicion of who is being benefited here.

And Dubya wonders why the medical field is so slow to adopt more
high-tech methods for tracking and treating patients.
Actually, Dubya should term it "resistance".

(and I'm not bashing MDs...but for some good ones, I'd not be here)

[banjo joe]

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

The same nit-wits who can't drive or eat a meal without yakking their self-important inanities over a cell phone.

[Airborne1986]

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

I don't care what jive the parents might peddle, videotaping below the waist during the birthing process is a red flag for litigiousness. These are the same people who are videotaping the babysitter.

[Ditto]

I agree. Watching my children being born were the most magical moments that I will never forget. I didn't need to record or photograph it to remember how special those moments were. I always thought taking cameras into the delivery room was borderline sick. People worried about recording the moment rather than experiencing it and understanding what a miracle life is.

[Airborne1986]

"*IF* a couple wants to video the birth, they should, period. isn't it THIER PRIVACY that should be looked after?"

I don't see this as a privacy issue for the parents. They are not seeking to protect or prevent the disclosure of confidential information. The doctor/patient relationship is a commercial transaction. The doctor has the right to set the terms of his employment. If he does not want to be videotaped, that is his call. If the hospital wants to regulate what happens inside its facility, that is their right - within the limits of the law. If the parents don't like it, they can find another doctor and another hospital.

[KarlInOhio]

Anyone have any videos of the delivery, followed by the delivery room ceiling and a nurse looking down asking "Are you OK?"

[Ditto]

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?

Around 2 in 10 women died from infection.

[Airborne1986]

"Anyone have any videos of the delivery, followed by the delivery room ceiling and a nurse looking down asking "Are you OK?"

I have not. Perhaps that is a problem. Are we all being deprived of seeing ABC's Funniest Delivery Room Videos or Birthing Bloopers?

[Augie76]

The 'sterile field' thing is a load of poop.

I think they may be referring to a c-section which is major abdominal surgery (speaking from personal experience).

[Ro_Thunder]

Yup, my wife had a C-Section for all 3 of our kids. (First one was breech, and the doctor doesn't do VBAC's).

Either way, I agree. *IF* the parents want to videotape it, and the hospital says no, they can go to another hospital. That's the free market we have.

[Howlin]

Exactly!