Friday, January 9, 2009

Giving birth in Second Life

I have no idea how we are going to animate the virtual birth unit, but here is an idea of what giving birth in Second Life looks like.

I am a bit freaked out thinking that people give birth in Second Life for fun, but it is interesting to watch the video from a technical point of view. My favorite bit of this video is that the midwife is wearing a big glittering diamond ring over her sterile gloves!! I'd never get away with that in real life...but then again, I wish I owned a big glittering diamond ring in real life!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fKa6gFf9sQ&feature=related

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is quite disturbing. The baby looks like a gingerbread man.

Carolyn said...

regarding animation of birth in second life. For most instances I do not think there is any need for such graphic view, which is not really realistic anyway. When women are birthing in upright positions or in water we do not have such a graphic view of the fetus progressing. Mostly we know where the process is at from how the woman is behaving and perhaps the occasional peek at progress. So I think that the animation of normal birth should be reasonably straight forward, keep it simple.
I am sure we will talk more about this.

Anonymous said...

hmm - maybe something from the view of a midwives consciousness - or minds eye? the temp of the room, the position of the woman, the reach for a warm towel, reassuring the woman and family/others, the pulse of the cord....these sort of things - there are more - what are we thinking at birth?
Rae

Anonymous said...

or the sound of the woman birthing?
rae

Sarah Stewart said...

Hello everyone, I'm not sure how much will or can be animated. What we are focusing on is the decision-making rather than detailed actions eg I would want the student to be able to show she has put sterile gloves on because of the underlying understanding of sterility etc.

What I do like about this video is that the birth is kept "simple" - no great dramas, medical equipment etc.

Anonymous said...

ok - i have only now just seen the ginger bread baby - omg!
I just want to laugh my head off!
great that you are documenting this - it will be good to see the improvements you make.
my comments are prob totally predictable - but argh! that position! and I'm guessing your baby won't be face to pubes...
seriously I think some authentic normal birthing sounds would be good in preference to the song.
what a hoot.
rae