Timehost: Welcome to the TIME chat! We're joined tonight with Elizabeth, the world's first Internet mom, who gave birth yesterday morning to a 7lb. 8oz. son, Sean, over the Internet, . The birth was broadcast on the web site of America's Health Network and was watched by an audience of tens of thousands. We're very happy to have Elizabeth with us here tonight and congratulate her on a successful birth! Welcome, Elizabeth! We're also joined by Tod Fetherling, the president of America's Health Network Interactive, which broadcast the birth on its web site and handled the technical side of the event. Welcome, Mr. Fetherling!
Timehost: Dr. Larimore, who hosted the Internet birth program, will be joining us in a minute.... Elizabeth's husband is here as well, so if anyone has a question for him, ask away!
Elizabeth and Tod Fetherling: Hello.
Timehost: All right, let's start with the question which has been on everyone's minds, I think:
Spankie_25 asks: Why did you choose to have a baby online??
Elizabeth: I was approached by my doctors as a way to promote an eduational experience. It was a way for the medical community to establish a network between doctors in rural areas so they can connect with doctors in other larger areas. So they could get advice on how to handle difficult situations. And also for women in those communities who don't have access to childbirth classes so they can learn more. The fact that it turned worldwide caught all of us offguard. I don't think any of us expected that.
Timehost: Dr. Larimore is now with us... Welcome, Dr. Larimore!
Dr. Larimore: Hi, Elizabeth.
BetttsyAnne asks: Please give a brief outline of the event for those of us who did not see...was it natural? section? epidural? Was Dad there? Are we nursing??
Elizabeth: The labor was induced, due to the fact that I have a history of short, quick labors. My doctor had established about a month ago the need to have the labor and delivery in a controlled environment, and not deliver a baby on the way to the hospital. Approximately half way through my labor I did choose a walking epidural, and the reason I felt the need for that is with the pitocin, my contractions never fully went away, as they ended I went right into the next one. I felt I wasn't getting any rest period, so that the walking epidural took the edge off, and in between I had a bit of a break. Once I got it, it seemed to relax me, so that the labor and delivery went very quickly. And, yes, I am now nursing.
Tod Fetherling: The other question is whether the father was present, and yes, he was, and Elizabeth's three children were also present at the birth.
Timehost: We have two questions for you now, Elizabeth...
Sporty_LA_Girl_15_98 asks: How does it feel being the first women to give birth over the Internet?
Rowdyman27 asks: Didn't it feel weird knowing that all the people were watching you give birth?
Elizabeth: From an eductional point of view, it's a good feeling that you're helping people. Once I got to a certain point in labor I was totally
unaware of all the activity, so I had no feeling about it all. People have the idea that there were twenty extra people in the room, but actually there was one extra doctor, Dr. Larimore, and one cameraman, both of whom we grew to know very well in the week or ten days before the birth. It was very easy to ignore or put out of your mind the fact that it was being filmed. They were very unobtrusive.
Doughboy33_33 asks: Where can we see it if we missed it?
Tod Fetherling: The live birth is availble at www.ahn.com. And currently it is from the moment of birth forward for thirty minutes. We will make the entire five hours of video streaming available later in the week.
Doughboy33_33 asks: Would you do it again?
Elizabeth: (Laughs) No. Four kids is enough. But I certainly enjoyed this experience. It was much bigger than I anticipated, but at the same time it created lots of memories that can never be replaced.
Tod Fetherling: I think that we will be investigating other opportunities to look at other birthing processes of people and animals. We experienced an enormous intererst yesterday. Over 1 million people logged into the website yesterday. And the Real Network reported five hundred thousand as well.
Timehost: Let's take a question for Dr. Larimore....
Seashore123 asks: Dr. Larimore, where did this idea come from?
Timehost: Dr. Larimore is joining us from a plane and we're having some phone problems. He'll be back with us in a few moments. Let's take a question for Elizabeth's husband... We've been receiving tons of congratulations for the whole family for this Internet birth... here's the question...
Ne1469n1998 asks: What did the husband think of his wife having their baby online?
Gilbert: I thought it was great. When she first asked me about it, I was 1300 miles away. When my wife first told me, I said, yes, I think we should do it. Wait, I asked whether they would be private about certain areas. My wife said yes, that they were going to shoot over her shoulders and not the doctors. I said, if that's the case, let's go ahead and do it. I think it's something great.
TechnoSpectre asks: How do you feel this will affect your child later on in life?
Timehost: This could be for both Gilbert and Elizabeth...
Gilbert: I don't know if it will change him at all. We're going to raise him to be regular and not snobbish. Our other children will tell him about the experience. And I just hope that everything that happens for him in the future will be good.
Tod Fetherling: The other three children are absolute angels.
Gilbert: Thank you.
Tod Fetherling: I was absolutely impressed by their maturity during the whole process.
Elizabeth: I think that by the time he's old enough to realize what happened. He's not going to be the only one. In ten years, it will be more commonly practiced on the Internet.
Zero_cool__22 asks: Did you get a lot of mixed reaction from your friends and family about having a baby online?
Elizabeth: No. Eveyrone was very supportive. Kids use the Internet, and my husband has two older daughters who use the Internet, and find it to be a very valuable tool. They all thougth it was great, knowing the good the Internet can do.
Timehost: Dr. Larimore is now back with us ....
Nan_Bear55 asks: Dr. Larimore : If there had been an emergency, how would it have been handled?
Dr. Larimore: Because medicine is unpredictable, and on my show we show the normal and the unpredictable, all parts of medicine, we would have covered any complication, as long as Elizabeth and Gilbert said okay. If they said stop, we would have stopped coverage immediately.
Dr. Larimore: As far as the overall vision for the idea, which I was talking about before, as I travel around the country speaking about labor and delivery, I find that many have misperceptions about the choices that they have that can make their labor shorter and safer.
Dr. Larimore: We wanted to show them and teach them about labor so that know more about it. Elizabeth and I both believe that women who have not witnessed labor are more anxious about labor. And that can make the labor more difficult.
Timehost: Dr. Larimore and Mr. Fetherling, how do you respond to criticism that the event was more a celebration of the miracle of the Internet than the miracle of childbirth?
Dr. Larimore:I have yet to talk to anyone who saw the event that did not see a miraculous event. The most common word used by people who witnessed the event was "awesome."
Tod Fetherling: We would have done the event if one person would have benefitted from seeing the live birth. As it was, over 1 million were able to witness this miracle via the Internet. If patient education is wrong, then I'm guilty.
Timehost: We have many questions similar to this next one for Elizabeth:
Mysteriou asks: Did you receive payment ?
Elizabeth: No.
Dr. Larimore: I would add that personally I would not have participated nor would the American Health Network have participated in such an event.
TechnoSpectre asks: What kind of software was used to broadcast this event?
Tod Fetherling: It was Real Player, a video streaming software available free of charge at real.com. A total of 280,000 downloads of the free software took place yesterday.
Jet02_98 asks: Don't you think the birth process should be a private thing? It's supposed to be beautiful. It's not meant for public viewing.
Dr. Larimore: That is one of the misperceptions that we wanted to dispel. In virtually every country and in virtually every time in world history, birth was and is a community event. Celebrated by the entire community and witnessed by family and supporters. We wanted to combine the best of the old with the best of the new. In celebrating this miracle of birth.
Elizabeth: Every day in the news we see death, dying, and suffering, and it doesn't get the criticism that sharing something good does -- and that just boggles and puzzles me.
Dr. Larimore: I share that puzzlement. The same media that shows a man's suicide on a city street criticized Elizabeth for showing a birth. That makes no sense to me. I admire Elizabeth for her courage and for showing something so good and so natural.
Timehost: I understand that America's Health Network intends to continue its web broadcasts on health issues... Is this true and if so, what are the upcoming topics?
Tod Fetherling: We have four new network programs that have debuted or will debut this month. Eye on Health, a nutrition and sports medicine series Women and Children, OR: Behind the Mask, and the Health Channel for Physicians. And we will continue the Ask the Doctor series which allows consumers to interact with physicians.
Dr. Larimore: The "Ask the Family Doctor" series that I host is hoping to bring more procedures that people can view. Our next birth event, tentatively, is the birth of triplets by caesarian section, perhaps as early as next month.
DeloresDelago asks: Dr. Larimore : do you believe this birth via the Internet will become more "common practice" in the future?
Timehost: And if so, why?
Dr. Larimore: To answer the first question, yes, I
believe that it will become more common. The reason being is that in our world, families and spouses are often separated at the moment of birth. This technology will allow a woman to have whoever she wants with her in labor.
Dr. Larimore: For example, Elizabeth's attending physician, Dr. Barbara Whalen, delivered her first child while her husband was thousands of miles away. He did not find out about the delivery until 24 hours later. With this technology, he would have seen his oldest daughter's birth. I think that is very good. Hospitals across the country are now setting up Internet nurseries to allow relatives to see the newborn.
Tod Fetherling: One example of that is careview.com
Timehost: We're running out of time, unfortunately...Let's take one last question.. This one for Elizabeth:
Marty2634 asks: Hello Elizabeth, Would you recommend other couples give birth online in the future to Internet Users around the world?
Elizabeth: That's a difficult one. For the purpose of use by doctors and hospitals in rural communities, I think it's great. I think the fact that this particular network wants to do other options like caesarian and multiple births, I think would be great, and I certainly endorse it.
Timehost: And with that we'll end, with Internet baby Sean crying in the background for his mom! Thank you very much for joining us this evening, Elizabeth! And congratulations from all of us in the audience on your birth!
Elizabeth:: Thank you.
Timehost: Thank you also, Dr. Larimore and Mr. Fetherling for joining us this evening with your insights. Any closing comments?
Dr. Larimore:: Anyone who has any other questions or comments is welcome to e-mail us at: ahn@ahn.com
Timehost: Thank you ! And for those of you who missed the original broadcast, you can see the video at America's Health Network's site at www.ahn.com. Thank you all for joining us!
