Childbirth Labor Protocols: Social Media

ANSWER: “So when you’re in labor and you’re wondering if it’s a good time to tell your friends and family and/or the world via social media that you’re actually in labor, that this is it, our baby is coming. I would suggest that you take a minute and just pause. Who do you want to know that information? Who is it most pertinent to that they get the information first. A lot of pregnant couples do want to inform their friends and family via text message or phone call when they’re in labor and that’s okay. One thing that I do suggest to my clients is that they asked their friends and family not to harass them with phone calls and text messages that say, are you still in labor? Where’s your baby? Are you at the hospital? What’s happening? Why are things taking so long? We want to relieve your stress and we don’t want to add any more pressure to you in your birth process. So that is my tip number one.

And as far as social media goes, you definitely want to ask these family members not to tell and announce on social media anything about your baby before you’re ready to or anything about your labor before you’re ready to. So if you send them pictures, once you’ve had your baby or you send them the stats about how much your baby weighed and how long your baby was and what time baby was born and you’re not ready for that to be posted to social media. Just make sure that you’re only telling people that will respect your wishes and not post before you do. And if you do make the decision to post about your Labor on social media, I would then also ask your acquaintances and friends not to, again, harass you with the calls and the text messages and just to let you be and let them know that you update them as soon as you have more information. So that’s my advice for announcing your labor through social media aspects.”