The Social Network Debate

With the imminent arrival of the birth of our third in line to the throne and the media frenzy surrounding St Mary's Hospital,  it got me thinking about the use of Social media sites such as facebook and twitter during pregnancy and labour. 

I chose not to 'announce' to the facebook world that we were expecting a baby, I didn't post our scan pic like many people chose to do and I asked my family not too either. I am not one of these people with 700 facebook friends, I have about 150 friends, all of which I would talk to if I bumped into them. I can't believe the cheek of people that send friend requests only to ignore you when they see you... ummmm delete! 

The day after our wedding I had 20 new friend requests, people I hadn't seen in years.. nosey parkers. 

I didn't feel there was any need to announce our pregnancy on facebook or twitter as the people that are important to us are the people we would tell personally. I am obviously not hiding my pregnancy on facebook and post my blog updates and talk about it all the time, I just didn't feel the need for a public announcement, but each to their own of course and I do love seeing a scan picture!  

I feel for Duchess Kate, the whole world has followed her pregnancy, judging her outfit choices and her bump size etc. Now she is in labour we are all eagerly awaiting for the news that the new royal baby has been born. It's the hottest day of the year, trust me that is hard enough for any pregnant women, I can not imagine being in labour during this, hopefully that private delivery room has good aircon! 

Back to Social networking- I have seen some really graphic status updates by people and their families during labour, from how many centimetres dilated they are, to letting everyone knowing the expectant mother is struggling and the forceps are coming out!!!! Funnily enough, I would rather people didn't have this image in their head whilst I am in hospital struggling through labour. 

My ideal labour would be to go in, pop him out and then let everyone know!! Don't panic close family and friends reading, we will let you know that I am in labour, even if it starts at 3am, however if you do post news of my labour on facebook or twitter you will not be invited to visit (exaggeration, but you get the idea) 

I also think it is down to the parents to make that first announcement that their baby has finally arrived, (not all of us will have a notice placed outside Buckingham Palace)  let's be fair they are likely to have just done the equivalent to 4 marathons!!! Eeekkk. 

I write a blog, so maybe I sound like a total hypocrite, but I think people who genuinely care about me/my pregnancy will take the time to read it, it's not forced upon anyone and I think in the long run will it save people from a million updates on every new thing my baby does. 

Do I sound like a kill joy? Where do you stand on the use of Facebook and other social networking sites?