Is This Taking Citizen Media Too Far? Woman Plans To Stream Childbirth On Internet
Nov 6th, 2009 | By James Lewin | Category: Citizen Media, Internet TV, Streaming Video, Video 
A 23-year old Minnesota teacher has announced plans to stream the birth of her first child over the Internet to anyone that wants to watch.
“We wanted to share this experience,” Lynsee said about the decision she made with her husband Anders. “If I were in a classroom, I’d be teaching about development. It was a way for me to teach… A way for me to use myself as a textbook.”
When she gives birth, a cameraman will be in the hospital room with Lynsee, her husband, her mother and her midwife. A second camera will be mounted in the corner. There will not be any graphic shots from the midwife’s perspective.
She also plans to live chat with members of the site momslikeme during her delivery.
People are videoing and sharing everything nowadays – but the idea of turning childbirth into a social networking opportunity seems a bit much to me.
What do you think? Do your Facebook “friends” belong in the delivery room?
I dont see it going to far, a little on the extreme side, but it is something that I would say hasnt been done yet. It might be a good thing for new media.
As long as they leave the vag-cam at home, I don't see anything wrong with it!
They can podcast it, doesn't mean I wanna podcatch it.
That's the true beauty of the N:M nature of the internet.
It's NOT like HAVING to watch it at 18:00 on the evening news because everybody's going to cover the event.
It's NOT like having to watch it at 18:00 on the evening news because you're either watching it THEN or you've missed it.
Its NOT like having to make incredible bandwidth demands to podcatch it, because its not a streaming media.
Podcasting is the greatest.
Also, is it just me or does that expression on her face look a little loopy?
Of course it is not excessive. She gave birth this morning, and I saw it excerpted on the local news here in MN. Everything was handled tastefully, capturing the beauty and the struggle of bringing new life into the world. If one young woman's fear of the process is allayed, it was worth it.
We can see a woman's intimate anatomy 24/7 on a million porn web sites. We also see women objectified and preyed upon everywhere, with society's emphasis on "fashion", cosmetic surgery, and "beauty" products. Why not counteract that even a wee bit with a miracle for which women's bodies were truly designed.
It's that motherly about-to-broadcast-your-childbirth-to-the-Internet glow.