IT Leadership

Parents Twittering During Childbirth

Mitch Wagner, California Bureau Chief, Light Reading

August 11, 2009

4 Min Read

Expectant Dads and even one Mom are Twittering during childbirth, sending out progress reports to family, friends, and the entire world. One of the Twittering soon-to-be-parents is Sara Morishige Williams, wife of Twitter co-founder Evan Williams.The BBC has the story: "Dear Twitter, My water broke. It wasn't like Charlotte in Sex and the City," @sara told her Twitter followers (she now has 14,339).

Her most recent tweet: "Epidural, yes please."

The news coverage of this event-including the BBC's-left me with the impression that she was pumping out a steady stream of updates. That seemed to me to be a little obsessive. However, in reality, she seems to have posted four tweets over six hours, which really isn't a lot.

I don't have kids myself, so I don't have any experience with childbirth (apart from my own-and I don't remember much about it because I was very young at the time, ha ha). But as I understand it, there is quite a lot of Waiting Around For Something To Happen going on in childbirth. Might as well send a tweet or two during the downtime.

Not a lot of Moms are Twittering during childbirth. Mostly it's the Dads hitting the keyboard, such as Tally Wilgis, a pastor from Timonium, Md.:

"Doc came back from the emergency across the hall. He seems eager to get to work," Wilgis tweeted a few moments before Ainsley was born. "He's going to get the team. We'll see"....
For some fathers, tweeting during the delivery offers a chance to keep busy.
"As a new father, you feel lonely in the delivery room because all of the attention is on your wife and the child," Wilgis says. "It gave me something to do while I was sitting there. ... To an extent, it's like talking out loud and wondering if anybody hears you."
Michael Schwartzberg, media relations manager for Greater Baltimore Medical Center, says he's recently heard of about a half-dozen expectant parents tweeting during deliveries at the hospital.
"It started, perhaps, when Lance Armstrong did it in June; that made it popular, I guess," Schwartzberg says. (The cycling star announced the birth of his fourth child, Max, on Twitter.)
But not everyone is sold on the idea of fathers constantly communicating with others during a most delicate period in a couple's life.
"I think it's terrible," says Dr. Renana Brooks, a Washington-based psychologist. "One of the few rituals we have, in terms of giving each other undivided attention, is that time in a delivery room. To be spending time writing to someone else destroys the whole ritual. That's like Twittering on your wedding night. You can blog about it afterward."

I first encountered the phenomena of Dads Twittering during childbirth in May, 2007. I wrote then:

One of my Twitter friends, Nick Wilson, posted the message about 15 hours ago: "Mrs W showing early signs of oncoming labor, could be an interesting morning..." Nick continued updates throughout the childbirth, and then announced the new arrival when it was done.
"Back from hospital, Daniel James was born at 8:15pm and weighs 3.5k -- Mum is doing good, and is catching up on email before bed," he Twittered, about 44 minutes ago.

I love the "catching up on email" part. So 21st Century.

I presume Nick posted the updates from the hospital using his cell phone. Although I do like the vision of a guy going into a birthing room with his laptop and wife. "Excuse me, honey, could you skootch over a bit -- you're lying in the only spot where I can get a strong Wi-Fi signal."

Should parents Twitter during childbirth? Question for healthcare IT pros: Should hospitals and other birthing centers have policies on whether parents should be allowed to Twitter during childbirth? What do you think?

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