Staying in Touch During a Birth with Skype

Well the story goes as follows...My daughter Britney Cole lives out in San Diego with her husband, who is a Chief on a Submarine. Duty called, and he was shipped out at the end of June this summer. With her pregnant and her due date being July 25th, she knew that he would not be here for the birth and kept thinking that the next time she spoke with her husband he would be a dad. Well, Allen came into the port of Australia at the end of July and he still was not a dad and was only going to be in port for about 5-6 days. They decided that she and Allen would Skype every day to stay in touch. Then came the morning of August 3rd.

Britney could not sleep and had back pain on Sunday night. The next morning, we started to time her contractions and they were about 4 minutes apart, so she and I packed up, and as we left she said, “We are heading to the Verizon store”. Not the hospital, you ask?

Well, with Allen arriving in port several days before and just in case she went into labor, they had been discussing options so he could still see the birth. Since the hospital did not have Internet access in the delivery area, Britney thought of mobile broadband. So, we went into the store and she said "I'm in labor, and I need to buy a mobile broadband card now." The sales representative actually tried to sell it to her, at which time she corrected him by saying that “I'm buying it regardless of cost. I need it now!”

We arrived at the Balboa Navy Hospital in San Diego around 10 a.m. Monday, and Britney was admitted. She felt fine, so we walked around the hospital for a few hours along with her friend Polly. The doula birth companion arrived shortly after, and we hooked up to Allen on Skype. Britney was pretty firm with the staff on wanting natural labor, and everyone was really supportive. It was around 7 p.m. when Britney was not very conversational anymore. It was really painful to sit, so she mostly stood, but was still talking and looking at Allen via Skype. As a matter of fact, Allen was the best thing in the room. Britney gave birth squatting on the bed @ 10:29 p.m. August 3rd while pressing her head into the bar (and had the bruise to prove it). Allen was able to see the whole thing with Polly holding the webcam. At one time Brit did ask for an epidural during pushing and got laughed at.

When Madeline was born, she was bluish, not crying and very floppy. A whole bunch of doctors rushed in, and Britney held her for maybe 2 minutes before they brought her to the NICU to be put on oxygen due to respiratory distress. For the next 36 hours, Britney and Allen were able to Skype in the NICU while Britney nursed and held Madeline. Allen was able to talk and sing to his daughter for a few days before being shipped out again. We brought Madeline home 3 days after she was born and both Britney and Mommy are doing great!

The author is Kimberly Michalski, owner of KAM Consulting Services Inc., which helps businesses with their accounting, reporting, and QuickBooks management. You can contact them at 219.510.3674.