Tweeting While Birthing: Should hospitals be allowed to prevent you?

Being Pregnant

In this week's New York Magazine, Tina Cassidy, author of Birth: The Surprising History Of How We Were Born chimes in the no-video-cameras-during-birthdebate.

"For today's families," she writes, "instant documentation and communication about labor and birth has become culturally embedded, to the point where it feels like both a rite and a right."

She makes the point that women who feel safe in labor and who feel "protected by those they know" tend to have more efficient births. This is a point I'm constantly harping on. Oxytocin- the hormone that makes us have contractions- flows faster when mom is filled with a sense of security and trust.

Cassidy makes a fascinating connection between oxytocin and social networking: Maybe our desire to tweet and snap our births is a way to reach out to our loved ones during a birth process that has become increasingly depersonalized?

"If anything, the compulsion to stay connected during labor seems to be heightening as contemporary childbirth becomes increasingly impersonal. You're handed a nightgown, assigned a wristband number and a bed (often in a room shared with a stranger). Family can visit, but only during designated hours. Parents are merely pushing against that, making birth, once again, part of the social network."

But isn't social networking impersonal too? Read more on Being Pregnant and join the debate!

MORE ON BEING PREGNANT:
Why the Ban on Video Cameras in Hospitals Is Bad for Birth
Childbirth Videos: Helpful or Hard to Watch?
10 Ways to Calm Your Pregnancy Anxiety


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