# Did Your Parents Videotape Your Birth? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 28, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524 "2004-05-28T15:35:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/1 "2004-05-28T15:35:42Z")
I’ve noticed that this board has a lot of members who were born in the 1980’s, which would mean that many here were likely born during an era in which camcorders were widely available and commonly used to preserve historic family events. Did your parents videotape your birth? Have you seen the video of your delivery?? Fortunately for me, my parents were too cheap to purchase a camcorder, but if they had done so I’m not sure if I’d want to watch a video of my birth. What is it like to watch such a video? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/2 "2004-05-28T16:03:12Z")
I believe William K.L. Dickson took a Kinetoscope of my birth, which was released under the title, “What the Doctor Saw.” ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/3 "2004-05-28T17:46:59Z")
Tell us what the doctor saw As we listen, rapt with awe. Do not begin to hem or haw, Eve, tell us what the doctor saw! Tell us what the doctor saw As you slid forth from dear ol’ Maw. Born a warrior, now a squaw. Oh, tell us what the doctor saw! Tell us what the doctor saw As he looked upon the spot where Paw Was only meant to look, by law. Please, tell us what the doctor saw! Tell us what the doctor saw Upon your exit from the craw, As you emerged all pink and raw Pray, tell us what the doctor saw! Tell us what the doctor saw Tell us now through clenched jaw! We could go watch TV, but naw. Beg, tell us what the doctor saw! Tell us what the doctor saw Or this may be the final straw! Oh, what conclusion shall we draw Without knowing what the doctor saw? ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/4 "2004-05-28T18:05:45Z")
If the technology would have been available, I would have liked my birth to be videotaped. I tried to video tape my kid’s birth, but by the time we found out our OB group didn’t allow it, it was too late (I changed OBs several times in the final trimester). ---
**Author:** ![P\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a587f6/32.png) [@P\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P_T)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/5 "2004-05-28T18:07:41Z")
I’m 35 years old. If my birth would have been videotaped it would have been done with Grandpa’s 8mm camera. But seeing as Grandpa never was in the room when a child was born and wouldn’t dare let Grandma run the camera, there is no footage. ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/6 "2004-05-28T18:57:56Z")
My parents didn’t even take photos of me when I was a baby … this is what happens when you don’t have a penis (they wanted a boy) ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/7 "2004-05-28T19:48:04Z")
By the time my brother was born this would have been possible, I’m pretty sure (1984) but I don’t want to think about the fury that would have been unleashed if anybody had walked into the room when my mom was giving birth to either of us…well, actually, I find the thought highly entertaining. It’d have been a good thing she was in a hospital, because whoever brought said camera would have been quickly admitted after she finished with them! ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/8 "2004-05-28T19:55:15Z")
**Doctor Jackson** , that was great! No footage of my birth, either. insert conception related joke here. **Lobelia Overhill** , don’t feel bad. When the younger of my two brothers-in-law was born, they didn’t take a picture of him until he started school. He looked so much like his brother at the time, that the parents just recycled pictures of the older one and passed them off as the younger one. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/9 "2004-05-28T20:12:41Z")
**Doctor Jackson:** Haw, haw! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/10 "2004-05-28T20:54:33Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > I’ve noticed that this board has a lot of members who were born in the 1980’s, which would mean that many here were likely born during an era in which camcorders were widely available and commonly used to preserve historic family events. > > Thanks. This is one thing that makes me glad I was born in the late 1950s. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/11 "2004-05-28T21:21:14Z")
> [@Mynn](#): > > I tried to video tape my kid’s birth, but by the time we found out our OB group didn’t allow it, it was too late (I changed OBs several times in the final trimester). That’s understandable. I’m suprised so many even allow it today, with malpractice suits and all. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/12 "2004-05-28T21:36:36Z")
My dad shot mine with an 8mm in 1974. If not the delivery itself then he started rolling shortly thereafter. I’ve never seen it as all of the various pieces-parts that are needed to play it back are scattered to the four corners of my Mom’s large and cluttered house. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/13 "2004-05-28T21:38:21Z")
My birth wasn’t filmed, nor do I care to see it. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/14 "2004-05-28T21:41:59Z")
> [@Governor Quinn](#): > > My birth wasn’t filmed, nor do I care to see it. Ditto. Nor do I care to see anyone else’s. My husband’s family is big into having 65 people in the delivery room, videotaping the birth, and then showing it at family gatherings. Just not my style. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/15 "2004-05-28T22:18:59Z")
> [@Lobelia Overhill](#): > > My parents didn’t even take photos of me when I was a baby … this is what happens when you don’t have a penis > > (they wanted a boy) Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. ☹ I took a photo of my son soon after he was born (and washed, and wrapped in a blanket), but that’s it. The idea of photographing or videotaping the infant as it gets pushed out of the mother’s vagina sounds gross. Or, as the **Dilbert** cartoon goes, “I put a movie of my birth on the company server. You should hear what they call you at work, Mom!” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_27th\_Evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@The\_27th\_Evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_27th_Evil)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/16 "2004-05-28T22:34:00Z")
Seeing as my birth (1984) involved major crises and emergency surgery, I really wouldn’t want to see it. I have no desire to see my mother’s insides, thank you very much. Plus, they didn’t get a camcorder until 1987. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/17 "2004-05-28T23:39:46Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > This is one thing that makes me glad I was born in the late 1950s. > > Carry on. Same here. And although our own kids were born in the last ten years, there was NO chance we would allow anyone to tape it. Some people take part in an event, other people record it. You can’t do both. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/18 "2004-05-29T04:17:38Z")
When I was presented to my mother after I was born, my mother screamed, “Eek, what is it!” Perhaps it is a good thing that I was born well before the advent of camcorders. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/19 "2004-05-29T04:31:33Z")
I was born in '78, my sister in '85. Neither of us had our births taped. The hospital staff DID take my first picture of me before I left the hospital, though-in black and white-damn, I was a chubby little baby. However, it might have been interesting if they had taped my birth. According to my parents, as soon as my head cleared, I started screaming. No need to smack me. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524/20 "2004-05-29T04:40:16Z")
No. My parents have never owned any sort of a video recorder. Besides, I was born caesarian. How weird would that be? My dad made up for it by taking approximately eight trillion pictures of me when I was a baby, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-parents-videotape-your-birth/247524.md?page=2)