WHEN baby Varchel Ho grows up, if he wonders what his first moments on earth were like, he won't have to ask his parents where the photo albums are.

He may be able to look up the video, along with thousands of others - on YouTube.

His parents posted an 8-minute clip online, showing him still covered in blood and goo, a glimpse of his mum lying on the bed at Gleneagles Hospital with blood still fresh, and the gynaecologist holding up mum's bloody placenta.

It's the next frontier in sharing lives online - parents posting their babies' birth videos on the Internet.

The New Paper found almost 20 such videos of born-in-Singapore babies, among thousands from all over the world on YouTube and other websites.

Some clips do not state where they are filmed, so there could be more from here.

The main reasons for uploading?

To share their experiences with other new mums.

Many had searched for clips to learn and prepare themselves for giving birth, then decided to post their own to 'pay it forward'.

It's also to share the event with relatives and friends who could not be in the delivery room.

The videos vary in their explicitness. While none of the Singapore videos found show the mums' private parts, some of the foreign clips show everything, including the baby's head crowning from the mum's vagina, up-close and uncensored.

Nudity usually banned

YouTube told The New York Times, in an article about US mums posting their birth videos online, that nudity is generally prohibited on the website.

'But we make exceptions for videos that are educational, documentary or scientific,' its spokesman said.

Some of the Singapore videos are quite graphic.

One shows a caesarean section, with close-ups of the baby's head emerging from the incision, doctors manipulating the mum's abdomen and slowly pulling the baby out. The undated video, taken at the National University Hospital (NUH), was uploaded in 2007 and has been seen almost 700 times.

You have to confirm you are over 18 to see this video. YouTube also posted a warning label: This video may not be suitable for minors.

There's another clip showing the mother in the throes of birth, with the gynaecologist encouraging her to 'push push', before emerging with a slippery baby from beneath the sheets covering mum's legs.

The 2005 birth of this unnamed baby in Gleneagles Hospital has been viewed almost 6,500 times since it was uploaded two years ago.

But most of the local videos are tamer - partly a reflection of hospital policies.

Hospitals like KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Thomson Medical Centre and Raffles Hospital do not allow filming of the birth process. Filming is allowed only after the babies are delivered, when they are cleaned, and have fluids sucked out of their windpipes.

NUH and ParkwayHealth, which operates Gleneagles, Mount Elizabeth and Eastshore Hospitals, said that filming during childbirth is subject to the approval of the consultant in charge of the delivery.

NUH Associate Professor Arijit Biswas, senior consultant and head of maternal-foetal medicine at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, said he gets filming requests - usually for caesarean births - about once in two months.

ParkwayHealth said it does not encourage filming, as it may hinder its medical staff's movements.

Dr Christopher Chen, a gynaecologist in private practice at Gleneagles, said very few husbands would want to see the baby crowning, let alone film the process.

'They would rather stand at the top end of the table with the wife, encouraging her,' he said.

Singapore General Hospital does not have a formal policy on this as it has never received requests from patients to film their baby's delivery.

Bloody

Dr Peter Chew, a gynaecologist in private practice at Gleneagles, said: 'Video and uploading online can be quite sensational in oriental culture.'

Baby Varchel's parents, Mr Geoffery Ho and MadamAngie Chua, both 30-year-old real estate agents, received mixed reactions, along generational lines.

It was mainly the bloody images of the placenta that caused a hoo-ha, they said.

Said Mr Ho: 'A few friends and relatives asked why I took those scenes, (saying) it's too gross. My dad and mum scolded me.

'(But) a few friends thought it was cool and quite interesting to learn and see more about it.'

Some friends even joked about wanting the placenta to maintain a youthful appearance.

Madam Chua said she was at first very concerned about privacy when she knew her husband had uploaded the video.

But after seeing that she was minimally exposed - with just a flash of leg - and the clip was mostly about their first child, she felt it was acceptable.

'If there were more, then I might have given a signal to remove it immediately,' she said.

Mr Ho said part of the reason for the uploading was educating and informing loved ones on the childbrith process.

'I do have some concerned friends or relatives who ask this and that, therefore I can just refer them to the video and they can see for themselves.

'It is also to save the video online so that my son can watch it when he grows up. Memories like this are very precious,' he said.

He insisted that what he did wasn't exhibitionistic.

That's why he posted the video on YouTube and not on Facebook, where all his friends would see it. On YouTube, it shows up only if someone searches for it.

Added Madam Chua: 'When I tried asking my mum about my birth, the answer was, 'Cannot remember', and I don't want that to happen if my son asks me the same question 20 years later.'

She said if it were purely up to her husband, he would have loved to have filmed and uploaded the entire birth process. 'I have warned him way before that I won't allow that. So no!'

Mr Ho said he would never do so without his wife's consent, and he would not feel comfortable with letting the couple's real estate clients see such a video.

The couple did view the more explicit videos online before Varchel was born seven weeks ago.

Said Mr Ho: 'We wanted to know what happens, (to be) mentally prepared and physically ready.'

Added Madam Chua: 'As a first-timer, I needed more information about childbirth as words from friends cannot compare to watching it live.'

Their gynaecologist, Dr Christopher Chong at Gleneagles Hospital, was surprised when The New Paper told him about the YouTube clip.

It's the first time in more than 20 years of practice that any of his patients have posted such material online.

He was not aware he was being filmed, as Mr Ho had used his handphone. He said that he is 'surprised and amused' after viewing the clip.

But, said Dr Chong: 'I feel the role of the daddy is not so much to film, but to be a good husband during the birth process, to understand, support, comfort and encourage, especially when the wife is suffering.'

This article was first published in The New Paper