September 27, 2008 12:47 PM PDT
A slice of life: Live Webcast set for C-section
Is there anything you can't see on the Web?
Don't answer that. I don't want to know.
I came across this press release from Friday afternoon, touting a Webcast of a cesarean section at a Wisconsin hospital next week.
Figuring that it was a first, I did a Google search for "cesarean section video." And guess what, this one can't even come close to claiming that honor.
The only twist is that the Webcast is live, which offers an added layer of tension. No clue whether that's been done before.
The Webcast is set for 6:30 a.m. PDT Monday on OR-Live.com.
Best wishes to the family for a safe and video-friendly delivery.
Natalie Weinstein is an associate editor who works out of Austin, Texas. She spent a decade as a reporter and editor in the newspaper industry before joining the CNET News staff in 2000. E-mail Natalie. 
Unfortunately, there is a darker side to this. Women don't see three weeks from now, with a baby in the NICU with respiratory issues from being born too soon from an elective cesarean (the ones they do on TV/Internet have to be scheduled, right?) or a mom who has a wound infection, a second floor apartment and a major abdominal surgery while caring for a newborn and a toddler. And 10 years from now, when she's forced to have another cesarean or more because no doctor in the country will agree to her having a safer vaginal birth or she has adhesions that lead to early hysterectomy...who will watch that on the Internet and care? It's not half so cool.
These surgeries aren't half so cool as they seem, either, because they aren't a miracle. They are usually robbing a mother and her family of the miracle. I'm glad they save some lives, but it's not an excuse to have damn near half the country having them and hawking them on the internet like an episode of House.