Welcome to Friday!

That means it time for another Fashion Friday post here on the Haute Mama blog. We’d normally used that as the perfect excuse to indulge ourselves in a little style and fashion chat, tailor made for expectant and new Moms, but there’s a whole new fashion gripping Moms and Moms-to-be and this week it has captured our attention.

According to this article over at the Cafe Mom blog, The Stir, the latest fashion accessory for those with child is an ever-up-to date Twitter stream, perfectly sychronised with a Facebook status that charts your baby’s every move, from the in-utero kicks and rolls to exactly how many stitches he or she warranted on exit.

The blog quotes an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

‘At 32 weeks pregnant, Putz was admitted to the hospital to monitor the baby and she let everyone know it too. “Just had an ultrasound and my little man is already approx. 4lb 10oz at 32 weeks! He is getting big!!!!” — 13 of her Facebook friends “liked” her status almost immediately.’

The piece also recounts the advent of a new social media application called My Pregnancy, which allows people to track all the details of your baby’s in-utero existence. Brrrr. I actually shivered as I wrote that. It just strikes me as kind of creepy. I’m an old fashioned gal at heart and I can’t shake the feeling that pregnancy happens on the inside for a reason – not on the outside as an appendage for the world to prod and scrutinise. Once upon a time pregnancy used to be a mysterious and secretive process – remember the days when parents-to-be saw the 20-week scan as an opportunity to check that their baby was developing healthily, not as an indicator for whether they should paint the nursery pink or blue?! Or when all we really knew about a developing unborn child was that they took 9 months to be ready for the world, before the advent of those faintly terrifying week-by-week emails you can get from parenting websites which delight in telling you that this week your baby is developing teeth! And is the size of a small apple! Shriek! And brrr again. Am I the only person who spent that week of my pregnancy haunted by visions of giving birth to an apple with teeth? And while I’m on the subject, WHY do they choose to equate the size of your baby with food? One week I distinctly remember reading that my baby was just big enough to fit inside a teacup, and I just couldn’t stomach my usual beloved cuppa without the fear that a small child might be lurking at the bottom.

I digress. The Stir also recounts the story of another couple who added this eye-watering detail to their Facebook pages on the arrival of their baby: “…the baby weighs 8lbs 11oz and 21 1/4 long, NO WONDER that hurt & I needed tons of stitches!”

I tend to think I overshare on Facebook and often regret it. Somehow Twitter is easier to navigate as I generally use it for work and it’s just easier to keep personal updates well, personal, and keep Twitter strictly business. Fiona, founder of Haute Mama and mum of two says this:

“I am a late bloomer when it comes to following the Facebook fashion. I’ve always used Facebook for business but since starting up a personal account, I’m pleasantly surprised how lovely it is to touch base with some old friends. It hasn’t been the productivity drain I feared it might be. Plus, I think Facebook is a great outlet for new moms in need of some social interaction with other grown ups who otherwise may be facing a day ahead with no time speaking to another adult.”

She’s eloquent, isn’t she? I have to say I can’t disagree with a word of that.

So what do you think? Is it somehow inappropriate to blog your way through birth, or make your baby’s personal life public before he or she is even born? Does it irk you if the first you know of a friend’s impending parenthood is that they change their profile pic to an oh-so-subtle snap of a pregnancy test? Or is this just pregnancy and parenthood 21st-century style?

Oh, and did we mention that you can follow Haute Mama on Facebook and Twitter?!

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