<i> Our readers wrote letters throughout...

To deliver a baby using risky procedures like forceps and anesthesia for the sole reason to have the first baby born in the New Year is simply awful (“Baby Rushed Into World for TV,” Jan. 3).

Then, if that’s not endangering the baby’s life enough, the baby was rushed out of the delivery room and displayed in front of a clapping, cheering crowd like an object. This baby is a person who needed the comfort and bonding of his mother’s arms, not to be traumatized by bright lights and noise.

As a new mother, the most precious memory of my daughter’s birth is holding her and nursing her right after she was born. There would have been no way that anyone would have taken my baby and run off with her to a crowd of germ-ridden, yelling people to be displayed like a New Year’s trophy. Shame on Dr. Turner, shame on the Palmers and shame on Melodyland Christian Center.

PAT McCAFFREY, Huntington Beach