Webcam Allows Marines Into Delivery Room

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Scripps Howard News Service
February 17, 2005

A leatherneck adage reminds the few and the proud, "If the Marine Corps wanted you to have a family, it would have issued you one."

The truth of that chestnut suggested to Marine Lance Cpl. Shad Biffle that his superiors in California likely would not grant him leave in the midst of combat training for Iraq so he could be present at his son's birth in Ohio.

Activated from Columbus five weeks ago, Biffle's unit is expected to deploy to the war zone within the next few weeks.

His wife, Nicole, and the couple's children have been living with Shad's parents in New Albany, Ohio, since early January. Aware of her husband's desire to see his son born, Nicole had hoped to have the birth videotaped.

"They said no camcorders were allowed in the delivery room," she said.

That seemed to settle the issue until several days ago when Sherrie Valentine, the hospital's manager of labor and delivery, received a phone call from Twentynine Palms, Calif.

"I talked to Shad's major," Valentine said.

Shad had found a physician attached to his military unit who had a webcam. The major had called Valentine to see if there was any way a second webcam could be set up in the delivery room.

"We had never done this before," Valentine said, "but her husband is off fighting for our country. There wasn't anything that was going to stop me."

She contacted Steve Smith in the hospital's information-services department and explained her problem.

"Sherrie, I think we can do this," he told her.

"So, we tried it between our two offices," Valentine said, "and it worked."

Late Tuesday night, Nicole's water broke, and when she arrived at the hospital, Valentine was waiting. "I just knew she was going to deliver that night."

Alerted to the impending birth, Shad rushed to the base's officers' quarters, where a webcam and laptop awaited.

In the delivery room, Nicole recalled, "There was a laptop on a little table, and the webcam was looking down on the bed."

Shad and Nicole could see each other.

"I placed it up near the head of the bed where the father usually stands," Valentine said.

"The telephone was brought in,'' Nicole said, "and we just left it off the hook. I could hear Shad, and he could hear me and the baby. He kept telling me, 'You're doing great. You look great.' I was all grins. I was able to help pull the baby out myself."

By that time, the webcam had been shifted so that Shad could get a better look at 6-pound, 5-ounce Shane Biffle.

"I jokingly looked up and told him, 'I want two more,'" Nicole said. "He said, 'It must be the drugs.' He wasn't able to be there in body, but that he could be there in spirit and talk to me was wonderful."

"I was so thankful at how blessed we were that it all worked out," said Shad's mother, Nancy Biffle. "We have a healthy little baby, and this was the next best thing to Shad's actually being there."

"There is a common thread that binds us all,'' Valentine said. "In essence, by doing this, I was expressing my gratitude for the men and women over there fighting for my freedom."

After Nicole gave birth, she said, she got to thinking about the seven other pregnant Marine wives married to men in Shad's unit.

All seven are in the Columbus area, and Nicole thought it would be great if _ with their husbands shipping out for Iraq _ a webcam and laptop could be purchased for them to use in the delivery room.

She kick-started the fund with a donation and hopes that contributors will make out a check to Women's Health Service at Grant-Fund 24773 and send it to Ohio Health Foundation, 3724 Olentangy River Rd., Suite G, Columbus 43214.

Though the fathers-to-be among Shad's fellow Marines won't be able to be in the delivery room, perhaps they'll have the next best thing.

I think that is a great idea. Personally I don't know at first if I would have liked the idea if I had the choice when I gave birth to my daughter. My ex husband was sent to Camp Casey four months before she was born. I can say experiencing it solo made for one I wouldn't wish on anyone. But that's part of being a military spouse. You have to suck it up.