Twitter has given an increasing number of expectant dads something to do while their wives are giving birth: Provide the world a real-time account of what may be the most intimate experience of their lives.
Tally Wilgis couldn’t wait to tell family and friends details about the birth of his second child, Ainsley, in January at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md. As his wife, Kristy, endured her contractions, the pastor from Timonium, Md., kept his 800 Twitter followers up to date.
“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.”
“Baby Ainsley is here!!!!! 5:17 p.m. 7.8 lbs. She’s beautiful! Kristy did an amazing job. I am so in love with that woman. (Three) pushes and she was out! I’m going to hold my daughter now!”
The free San Francisco-based site allows users to post entries (or Tweet) what they’re doing in 140 characters or less. Expectant parents are using its versatility to keep loved ones informed.
Some expectant parents like Wilgis bring laptop computers into the delivery room and post updates for those who follow their entries. As his daughter was being born, he captured emotions — including his own — that might have gone unrecorded had he waited to talk about them over the phone.
Matt Tatham, media relations director for online measurement company Hitwise, said it’s not surprising that Twitter has become popular in delivery rooms.
“It happens because it’s there and it’s possible,” he said.
For some fathers, tweeting during the delivery is a way to keep busy. It also gives them someone to talk to while the physicians tend to mother and child.
Not everyone is sold on the idea of fathers tweeting during a most delicate period in a couple’s life.
“I think it’s terrible,” said Renana Brooks, a Washington-based psychologist. “The world is divided, and 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.”
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