Woman Live-Tweets Her Birth

Source: Twitter/Lindsey Thomas

Source: Twitter/Lindsey Thomas

Keeping your loved ones updated as you get through labor is one thing — live-tweeting the event to your 1,200 Twitter followers is another. That’s what British mom Lyndsey Thomas did during while giving birth last month at Whittington Hospital in London, from experiencing her first contraction to breastfeeding her newborn daughter, using the hashtag “Lyndseygivesbirth.”

On Sunday, Thomas, a 34-year-old marketing executive who lives with her husband, their 3-year-old son Teddy and newborn daughter Fern, explained her reasons for being so open on social media to the Daily Mail.

“When I got there I thought, ‘What can I do to pass a few hours before it all kicks off?’ I wanted to capture as much as I could, even during my contractions,” she said. “It was a way of keeping my mind off the pain and telling friends what was happening. It was also a kind of social experiment to see what the reaction would be like.” Which, by the way, was overwhelmingly positive, with spectators calling the experience "touching" and "brilliant."

Thomas isn’t the first to live-tweet her birth — in April Twitter employee Claire Diaz-Ortiz documented her experience for her 330,000 followers, and in January a Los Angeles woman named Ruth Fowler live-tweeted (and Instagramed) her home birth to keep her mind off the pain. A Houston hospital even live-tweeted a C-section for educational purposes in 2013.