Staff Photo by Tim Barber Judy Casperson, 38, reaches for her newborn son, Landon Christian Casperson, who was born Friday morning at Erlanger Hospital. The father, Major Sean Casperson, is stationed in Bagdad, Iraq.

When Judy Casperson’s newborn son entered the world at 3:23 a.m. Friday, not only did the nine people in the Erlanger hospital delivery room witness the birth, so did her husband, Maj. Sean Casperson, thousands miles away in Iraq.

At Erlanger’s downtown campus, tech workers had set up a laptop using the hospital’s wireless high-speed Internet to connect the first-time father to his wife via a Web camera.

“I was determined to have this,” said Mrs. Casperson, 38. “The hospital did everything in their power to get it up for me and was very accommodating. Everybody has just been so wonderful.”

Although the Internet video was spotty at times, the webcam’s audio stayed on through the entire birth, said Dr. Kirk Brody, Mrs. Casperson’s obstetrician. He said this was his first delivery with a webcam in the room.

“I thought it was great,” he said. “I was trying to put myself in (the father’s) position and missing the birth of my child and how awful that would be. I know this was not the same, but it must have made it a million times easier on him.”

When Maj. Casperson first saw his wife in the delivery room through the webcam, the first thing he said was, “Oh man, you are so beautiful,” Mrs. Casperson related.

“He would always say, ‘Honey, it doesn’t matter if I see the video or anything, as long as you have an uneventful, beautiful, memorable experience,’” she said. “He cares more about other people than himself.”

The Caspersons learned Friday afternoon that Maj. Casperson can come home for two weeks starting Dec. 1 to be with his family.

Maj. Casperson, who’s based out of Fort Bragg, N.C., with the Army’s 44th Medical Command, has been stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad for a month and is scheduled to return next fall, Mrs. Casperson said.

When her baby was born, “I couldn’t get over how beautiful he is,” said Mrs. Casperson, a hairstylist and salon owner at Redesign Hair Salon in Chattanooga.

“I wish Sean could have been physically there, but I knew he was (present) with all his heart and every bit of his emotion,” she said.

Also in the room was Mrs. Casperson’s 16-year-old daughter — Maj. Casperson’s stepdaughter — Kayla, who cut her new baby brother’s umbilical cord.

Erlanger spokeswoman Katie Nave said that hospital staff want to encourage more families to take advantage of the webcam technology.