Marine participates in live birth at Cape Canaveral Hospital from 7,000 miles away

Marine Sergeant Alex Stachowiak got an early Christmas present weighing 8 lbs. 3 oz. Benefiting from a live video hook-up created through a partnership between the Freedom Calls Foundation and the Cape Canaveral Hospital and its IT staff, Alex was able to watch the birth of his son via live video conference all the way from Iraq. Alexander Jr. was born Friday afternoon, Dec. 14, as the father watched from the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq where he has been deployed since August.

Wife Kristen, herself a former Marine radio operator, said having her husband watch the birth of their son via web cam was the next best thing to having him in the delivery room with her. “Being able to see my husband during the birth was helpful. I didn’t think he would be here at all. He was right there on the monitor.”

The Freedom Calls Foundation is a non-profit charity that provides state-of-the -art communications services free of charge to military families. It is entirely supported by donations from the public and receives no funding from the military.

The ‘live birth’ required some expert planning on the part of the medical staff, the IT Department, and, of course, the mom. Dr. Vanessa Dance, the attending physician, agreed to induce labor for planning purposes. “I think it’s great for her and her husband,” Dance said. “They get to share this time together.

” The IT staff worked remotely for two weeks leading up to the live birth to create an endpoint at the hospital. Then once Alex was online, an IT staffer was on-call during the entire time that Alex and Kristen were communicating via Web cam. Not only did Alex get to witness the birth of his only child, he was able to see his wife and new born son the following day, via a second video conference call.

Find out more about Cape Canaveral Hospital's Mother/Baby Unit.

See the video coverage on CNN

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