Should Hospitals Allow Photo Taking and Videotaping In Delivery Rooms?

Each Wednesday in Moms Talk, our of Melrosians take your questions, give advice and share solutions—and we want you to join in the conversation.

The Moms Council will discuss the question of the week beforehand, which we'll publish below, and then invite you to join in the conversation in the comments section, where we'll keep the conversation going.

(Please remember if you're signing up for a Melrose Patch account that our Terms of Service do not allow aliases. We also kindly ask that you use your full name. You may also sign in using your Facebook account.)

If you want to join the Moms Council or submit a question, e-mail editor Daniel DeMaina at danield@patch.com.

So grab a cup of coffee and settle in as we start the conversation with today's question ...

A recent New York Times article covered the growing debate about hospitals banning cameras in delivery rooms. Reasonable and understandable? Restrictive and unfair?

(Editor's note: Jesse Kawa, spokeswoman for Hallmark Health—parent company of —said that in Hallmark Health hospitals, still and video cameras are allowed in the Labor and Delivery rooms after the birth. No cameras or cell phones are allowed in the Caesarean (C-section) rooms.)

From Kimberley DeLeire:

To tape or not to tape.... many hospitals are starting to draw the line of show business in the delivery rooms, and I have to say that I can't blame them. Child birth is some serious business—not the latest YouTube most viewed video.

I wonder if you asked some of the nurses or doctors during their years of schooling and training that they had if there was a class, 'How to Pose For a Video 101?' Time will tell if this will become standard or perhaps this will be the latest marketing tool for some hospitals. "Want to video tape? Come have your kid with us." Again, there will be a choice to make as a parent or becoming a parent.

From Karen Blackburn:

First, let me set the record straight, I had absolutely no interest in having a camera of any kind in the delivery room during the birth of my daughters.

However, bringing a child into the world is an amazing experience and it is a shame that hospitals are preventing families from documenting it. Hospitals need to stop worrying about the risk of a lawsuit and find a way to support families as they celebrate an incredible experience.

From Kate House:

I am horribly camera-shy. Not surprisingly, the very thought of having had a video camera (with tripod!) in the delivery room while I was having my daughter is enough to keep me up at nights, retroactively. I wasn't a pretty sight (my husband would not-so-secretly agree, I suspect). The room wasn't a pretty sight. But my daughter? She was a pretty sight—a beautiful one, even.

While I can't begin to imagine wanting to record the actual act of childbirth, I can identify with braver parents' wishes to capture every moment of what remains, even in the twenty-first century, a miracle. There will be so many more moments down the parenting road that won't be as joyous, as amazing, as awe-inspiring. If a mother and father want to save this happy moment for posterity, I don't see anything wrong with it, assuming that 1) the camera is not deemed a hindrance to the actual delivery and therefore the baby's and mother's health and 2) permissions of any medical staff caught on camera are granted before the video is posted anywhere public (not sure how easy this would be to enforce).

In regards to doctors' liability fear, and worries of being caught on camera either botching something or appearing to botch something? In my non-hospital-administrator opinion, if you're an M.D., neither performance anxiety nor the overwhelming worry you're going to do something wrong should be foremost on your mind.