VIDEO: Push and say cheese: woman to live-stream childbirth online
September 28, 2011
Comments on this story
(2)
Michael Woods
STAFF REPORTER
Nancy Salgueiro videotaped the home births of her first two children, but this time she’s kicking it up a notch: she’s live-streaming her third child’s birth online.
The Ottawa chiropractor and birth coach, 32, is asking people to sign up on her website so she can email them when the birthing process starts. She is due on Oct. 7.
Nearly 1,000 people have signed up so far, with viewers registered from as far away as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States.
The goal, Salgueiro said, is to promote childbirth as “a wonderful, empowering joyous experience,” that doesn’t need to occur behind a hospital curtain.
“We’ve taken it from homes and put it into hospitals, and made it this secret, private event where nobody has any idea what really happens,” she said. “The horror stories we’re told is all that women know about childbirth.”
Her husband Mike Carreira, also a chiropractor, said he supports the idea but it took some getting used to.
“All this is very new,” he said. “We’re sacrificing our family privacy to an extent for this. But my wife is very passionate about birthing,” he said.
Salgueiro, who first had the live-stream idea in April and hopes to be sitting in a pool during the birth, agreed the lack of privacy is a potential drawback and said having a wide audience might affect her.
“I’ve had my moments thinking ‘this could interfere.’ It’s not good for a labouring mom to feel watched,” she said. “It’s just a matter of me mentally not really paying attention to the fact that [the camera] is there.”
Women have broadcast births online before, but this is the first Salgueiro’s heard of someone live-streaming a home birth. The couple’s two children, Leilani, 5 and Taivus, 2, were both born at home and will be present, having already seen their own birth videos.
The webcam will be placed so the stream is appropriate for all audiences and avoids graphic imagery, Salgueiro said. The couple said they hope the live feed helps raise awareness about different birthing options for women.
“I hesitate, but the importance has me agreeing this is something that we should do,” Carreira said. “When I was first told about home birth for my first child I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ But you inform yourself and it becomes a decision that makes sense.”
Joining the family in the living room will be at least two midwives and two camera operators. But many more people will be watching from outside the room.
“I’ve had many women say they would love to be able to be there at the birth, and obviously I can’t have a whole big audience of people in the house,” Salguiero said. “The whole point is to normalize birth so women know that they can do it, and it’s not scary.”