This may be controversial to some, but there are people now who have decided to video the first moments of their child entering the world. For some people this is a beautiful experience which needs to be shared with loved ones, or to be treasured to watch again; for some people this is a traumatic experience which they would not want to review! I have had a cousin who during birth wanted to have both her mom and dad in the room, along with her partner, and her dad filmed the whole experience. I was discussing this with my other family members who were all in uproar about it and they could not believe that she wanted a video of it. This may be because on that side of the family there have been a number of traumatic births which resulted in emergency c-sections, or maybe that would be their belief anyway?
Positivity Around The Video
The positives of this would be that you have an experience which lasts a lifetime, you can share it with your child and show them how they entered the world. For the mom it may provide an opportunity to see their baby’s first moment as they missed it – because weirdly enough she can’t see down there! I think that for some people it is almost necessary, for example if a loved one cannot be in the room at the time of the birth and they really wanted to experience it, I am thinking particularly of those military fathers who may miss their child being born. So for some of these people a birth video may be irreplaceable.
The Downsides
The downsides would be that for some people it could bring back memories that they do not want, for many reasons. It may remind them of pain, a reminder that their loved one was not there, or maybe you just do not want to see your ‘giving birth face’! The other downside could be that your child may not want to see it, and it could be a bit of a shock for them, or maybe if you have more than one child, if you record one and not the other this could be upsetting for one child!
There could be a medium ground here, a video of the birth which did not show all of the gory details of your child being born, maybe it could be videoing the reactions of loved ones in the room, the first glimpse of your baby once it is born. This would be a video you would never be embarrassed showing to people and it could capture more than just a still shot, it could capture the sounds of your baby’s first cry, it could record a moment between partners which would otherwise be lost, and it could be an outlet to record your feelings or a message to play back to your child when it grows up. For me this would be the way I would want to record it, without all of the gory details!
All in all, it is a personal decision which you are more than entitled to make, so have a think because if you want it, do not forget to pack your video camera (and some batteries!)
Citations:
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This article has been written by Anna from www.pregnancy.co.uk and she is interested in how people make different decisions around the birth.
