IT'S A BOY! MOM GIVES BIRTH ON THE INTERNET

PHOTOBroadcast live on the Intenet, a 7 pound, 8, ounce baby boy is born at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday at Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Fla. (ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO)

THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED VERSION.

A groaning, 40-year-old woman gave birth to a boy Tuesday in front of thousands of people who saw it not by elbowing their way into the delivery room but by logging onto their computers.It was billed as the first Internet birth, although in the fast-moving world of high-tech, that claim was disputed.

Viewers over the Internet didn't see anything more graphic than an episode of "ER." The cameras were discreetly held at the woman's side and in front of her hospital bed, but nurses' backs blocked any view of the actual delivery.

"After a certain point, you're not aware of all the commotion that is going on," said the mother, who wanted herself identified only by her first name, Elizabeth.

While the birth of the black-haired boy went smoothly, the same couldn't be said for the Internet broadcast over the Web site of America's Health Network, a cable TV channel.

A computer traffic jam limited the number of viewers to about 5,000 at any one time, only half of what the cable network had expected. At least 50,000 people at one time logged on to the site in an attempt to download the video footage.

"I wouldn't say we underplanned," said J. Tod Fetherling, president of America's Health Network-Interactive. "We had scaled out for the biggest number we could imagine and we have reached beyond that."

Sean was born at 10:40 a.m., more than 41/2 hours after the broadcast began. Elizabeth groaned several times before the 7-pound, 8-ounce baby emerged in front of the two cameras.

"Here comes Sean's head. He has a lot of hair on his head," said Dr. Walter Larimore, who narrated for the Internet audience from the delivery room.

Larimore, host of "Ask the Family Doctor" on America's Health Network, gave a play-by-play description as Elizabeth, already a mother of three, was injected with a hormone to induce labor and sat on a large plastic ball to help speed delivery.

Elizabeth's husband, Gilbert, held her shoulders. Her 10-year-old daughter, Sara, held her hand to her mouth in awe as she stood around the hospital bed with her 11-year-old brother, Joey, and 14-year-old sister, Lindsay.

"We just acted like nobody was there and everything went fine," said Gilbert.

The Orlando-based cable network's claim that it had the world's first Internet delivery was disputed by Tammy Barnes, 26, of Golden, Colo. She said she gave birth over the Internet in February, using a sort of video chat room that was accessed by up to 150 people, mostly friends.

Elizabeth said she agreed to the broadcast because she wanted to help educate other women. She was approached about the idea because of her history of easy childbirth and quick labor. Doctors had been planning to induce labor even before they were approached by the cable network.

Sean entered the world within 10 minutes after Elizabeth began pushing. Afterward, the other children took turns holding their baby brother.

"You've shared a miracle with the whole world," Larimore told the couple. "We're going to step out of your lives for now."