# What are birthing videos "used" for? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 27, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353 "2004-09-27T20:48:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353/21 "2004-09-28T02:32:53Z")
[Garry Shandling] Got video of the conception? I’ll watch that… [/GS] ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353/22 "2004-09-28T03:16:48Z")
Our video doesn’t have much (Wife had the stomach flu for 18 hours beforehand, had a spinal tap, was kinda in La La land etc.) I had the camera pointed at the ground mostly for ‘legal purposes’. There’s a half second shot of the incision with hal fa kid hanging out, but if you didn’t know it was a C section, you wouldn’t really recognise what was goin’ on. Now, there’s a bunch of video while the staff ‘woke up’ the kids, and you can hear me demurely declining to cut the cord… ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353/23 "2004-09-28T03:33:40Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > I don’t know. I bet they are funny when played in reverse. It’s been a good 5 minutes since I read this and I’ve finally stopped laughing enough to type. God, that’s a funny thought. I’m going to have to borrow somebody’s birth video and try this. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353/24 "2004-09-28T12:56:11Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > LOOK OUT! IT’S THE VAGINAL HOOVER! :eek: Aah, it was funny enough when he started with the video in reverse. But you got me laughing out loud. “LOOK OUT! SHE’S GONE FROM SUCK TO BLOW!” ---
**Author:** ![YoudNeverGuess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a587f6/32.png) [@YoudNeverGuess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoudNeverGuess)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353/25 "2004-09-28T13:10:52Z")
If I had a kid there’s no way in hell I’d let anyone tape the proceedings. Still, though it would be kind of freaky and gross, it would still be strangely fascinating to watch yourself being born when you’re grown up … Another thing - why would a new dad want to watch his kid being born through a viewfinder? It’s kind of like those tourists who constantly have the video camera glued to their eye but less understandable. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353/26 "2004-09-28T13:53:57Z")
I don’t know…I’m hoping to be able to tape the birth of my child in March…I don’t want to have the “money shots” …I know what comes from where…but I would like to have the camera on a tripod in the corner, recording the moment…actually, I’d like two camera’s…one showing most of the room (from above her head), and another more zoomed in on the top half of her body…so that when they hand her our child for the first time, I capture that moment. I get a feeling that I may be arguing with the hospital quite a bit about that. I can understand that having an enthusiastic husband point the camera in the doctor’s face would be a hazzard, I would like to know the reason why they forbid camera’s in the room at all during the birth. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353/27 "2004-09-28T14:09:21Z")
> [@Atrael](#): > > I can understand that having an enthusiastic husband point the camera in the doctor’s face would be a hazzard, I would like to know the reason why they forbid camera’s in the room at all during the birth. My WAGs are that someone who’s looking through a viewfinder can be a hazard (whoops, knocked that tray over; whoops, didn’t mean to jostle your arm, doc), and for legal reasons related to later malpractice charges. Standard practices could be misinterpreted by bystanders as being negligent/malpractice (it took them 10 whole seconds to react to that alarm!) and actually having footage might prejudice a jury. I can understand having a camera there to take the “first time cradling your baby” moments, but not the actual birth. I don’t have plans to ever have children, but to echo another poster’s comments, if someone brought in a video camera during my (hypothetical) labor, they’d have some interesting footage of their own internals. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353/28 "2004-09-28T20:07:37Z")
> [@Atrael](#): > > I can understand that having an enthusiastic husband point the camera in the doctor’s face would be a hazzard, I would like to know the reason why they forbid camera’s in the room at all during the birth. Well, the reason they gave was “legal reasons.” I personally believe that it limits their practical liability, in the event something goes wrong during delivery. For instance, in the event the OB drops the slippery sproggen on his noggin, the hospital doesn’t want a videotape of the incident available in the courtroom. And being more cynical than your average cynic, I would go so far as to assume that their malpractice insurance rates are lowered as a result. But I wouldn’t post that in GQ. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-birthing-videos-used-for/266353.md?page=1)