Guest Post-Alisa Gilbert

British Mom Tweets through Natural Birth

Many moms considering a natural childbirth are apprehensive about many things, especially when it comes to considering the immense amount of pain involved in going through the whole process without painkillers. But those who are considering natural births have a new hero--Fi Star-Stone, a British mom who spent thirteen hours in labor giving birth drug-free. What's more she tweeted nine updates throughout.

A Daily News article reported that after twenty minutes of giving birth to her son at home, she Tweeted, “Introducing Oscar John Michael Victor Stone. Thanks so much for all your support. I’m shattered and sore but the happiest mummy on the planet.”

Star Stone is the creator of a popular UK childcare advice website, called Childcare is Fun. Even though thousands of people followed Star-Stone and her son's birth on Twitter, the incident was met with much criticism in the media.

In one example, Bridget Harrison of the UK newspaper The Daily Mail wrote an opinion editorial entitled "Why I deplore the twit who Tweeted as she gave birth." In the article, Harrison described her own difficulties trying to give birth naturally, and said that what Star Stone was doing was simply dangerous.

While several newspapers reported that the reason behind Star-Stone's "Twitter birth" was to "dispel some of the myths of childbirth", Star Stone herself vehemently denied this, saying she simply wanted to report her home birth experience to her website's readers. On her blog, Star-Stone noted in her latest post, "Telling the Real Story of My Twitterbirth":

“It wasn’t about promoting drug free births- I had a homebirth, you can’t have drugs at a homebirth! If you need drugs then have them!! It’s your body, your labour!! My #twitterbirth wasn’t about that. It was about promoting a positive home-birth experience!”

Even though the so-called Twitter birth received tons of media attention, much of it negative, what's most admirable about Star-Stone's approach to natural childbirth is that she underscores how the whole experience is a very individual one. Every mother can decide for herself how she wishes to undergo the experience, and Star-Stone has shown us that for her, the process was a joyous one that just happened to be accomplished at home without the use of drugs.

Seen in this light, Star-Stone should be commended for her openness to different birthing methods and experiences. For those soon-to-be mothers who are weighing the option of giving a natural birth, know that, in the end, the final decision is up to you.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Alisa Gilbert, who writes on the topics of bachelors degree. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alisagilbert599@gmail.com.