To Each Their Own

When I was preparing for labour, the furthest thing from my mind was making it public. And by `it` I mean the actual labour. In fact, we didn`t even tell anyone, aside from my mother, that labour had begun until I was about 18 hours into it. For me giving birth was a special moment to be shared first and foremost with my husband. It was why he was the only one, other than the nurse, in the delivery room with me.

For others, labour is a much more open affair with as many people in the room, or coming and going, as is allowed by the health care providers. But Dr.Nancy Salgueiro, well she`s taking her birth waaay public. She`s broadcasting it online for anyone to see. And to that I say, to each their own.

Dr. Salgueiro is planning a natural home birth, which she will live stream it online for anyone interested to watch. Essentially, you sign up in advance and you`ll get notice once labour begins so you can tune into her website or facebook page for a front row seat. Again, the furthest thing from my mind when my water broke was `get the video cam honey and don`t forget to press send on that email distribution list`, but that`s me. And this is her.

Her intentions seem good. She wants to help eliminate some of the fear and uncertainty associated with child birth, especially a natural birth. As someone who had a limited idea of what to expect and who ended up with a natural birth, not necessarily by choice, I think this is cool. Information is power. Now me, I didn`t want no more information than I already had. Unh-uh. I was as prepared for pain, complications, and hard work as I wanted to be thank you very much. But there are others who really want to know it all, to be as ready as they can possibly be. In that respect Dr. Salgueiro is doing a public service and filling a void that she, as a health care professional, has identified. Good on her.

Unfortunately, there are people who will turn this sort of decision into a mega-big deal in a freak show kind of way. And that`s just sad. We are talking about the miracle of life here, not some porn show. Some people say they simply don`t want to see that kind of thing. Then I say, if you don`t want to watch it, don`t. Log your computer into your favourite blog or twitter feed that day instead. Pull up your favourite kitten video on YouTube and watch it. Whatever. And of course there are those of the view that this is gross. Well, yeah I guess blood and pain is kind of gross, but we all got here in the some variation of the same gross way. It`s called birth. It is life. Get over it. Then there are those are supposedly concerned that something might go wrong during the delivery. Well, I`m expecting that Dr.Salgueiro has accounted for that in her plans and if not shame on her. That decision has nothing to do with the decision to live stream the birth. And then, if something does go wrong on live stream, I`m sure someone watching will promptly notify the necessary health officials who can assist. Whoa, take that opposition, the live streaming may actually help her. The world wide web is amazing like that.

We are talking about the most natural of occurrences, one of life`s coolest machines in full motion. The fact that she wants to air that to the world is her decision and a brave one at that. Me, it`s not something I want to see. Heck, they offered me a mirror during my own labour and I said no way José. I didn`t want to see that. I don`t think my eyes were open once I started pushing until the moment Hudson took his first breath.

That`s me. This is her. And there are hundreds on the spectrum in between. Where you fall is up to you. And again, I say to each their own.