Pregnancy

Live Twitter Birth Is Just Another Way Of Keeping A Diary!

You know my first thoughts upon hearing of Ruth Fowler’s live Twitter birth?

 

Darn now, why didn’t I think of that hashtag! #Emmashomebirth has a ring to it..

 

Different to what other reactions seem to be on this simple act by a woman who’s entitled to do such a thing like ‘tweet her birth’ because you know, your social media accounts are your space. Her social media accounts are her space in cyberspace for her to document her life and share it in a way she wants to do so. I applaud such a thing, why should labour be kept private & personal as some say it should be? If we do not want to keep it private and share this time with the world, then that’s totally up to us.

We dont have to read, and we dont have to follow, the internet is what you make of it. I’ve seen the negative comments to what she did, ones calling her a drama queen and attention seeker. Just because it’s made public doesn’t automatically make it attention seeking, we all share photos and moments via social media not because we’re seeking attention for them but because we want to record these moments and we do want to share these good or even bad times with people be them, friends or strangers.

Only a few years ago I was reading in the news about Fi who live-tweeted her birth, that was 2010. Since then I’ve seen many women use Twitter in the build-up to labour and to use it to announce to friends and family that baby has been born. Why should this all be such a shocking concept in 2014?

Now back to my reaction, I want to tweet my birth again. I LOVE looking back at the tweets I did send. Moments I wouldn’t have remembered otherwise. Ok, so I could have written them down on paper, but would that paper of talked back to me? Would it of joined in the fantastic encouragement I was already getting from the husband and my midwives? Not likely!

It’s special to me knowing that I fell asleep around the 11 pm mark, tweeting gave me time frames that I can look back at. Tweeting that I was waiting for the midwife at 3.35am because I felt the urge to push into my bottom makes me giggle, looking back at that, I remember that bottom pushing sensation was in fact because I needed a clear out. Yeah nice, right? At least I didn’t share that at the time, might actually share that next time. Why hold back on details that I’ll probably eventually share anyway. I giggle that I turned into a total swearing monster, but I think that’s a God-given right when you’re in the middle of popping out a baby.

This time around I plan on using a hashtag so in the days after our labour during those night feeds and where I’m stuck to the sofa with a feeding baby, I can read back through the tweets I sent and the tweets I got in reply. Think about it as the 21st-century form of new baby greetings. I can then record those tweets in ways where I can revisit them as I do with the ones I sent during Dylan’s birth. The birth of my child will be a fantastic occasion; it’s mine and my husband’s choice if and where we share this. Anyone with a problem about that then simply doesn’t have to read. I hope that sharing our experience shows that labour is a normal everyday occurrence and that birthing is natural.

 

I asked my Twitter followers what they thought about live tweeting your labour, here’s what they had to say…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my favourite tweet..

 

 

 

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