Is live streaming a birth on Facebook oversharing?

Now there’s sharing, and there’s over-sharing. Did you hear the one about the man who live streamed his child’s birth on Facebook?

Now I know there are some people who’ll do anything for their 10 minutes of fame and I’m sure we blogging types are guilty of a little oversharing at times, but did this guy go too far?

Fakamalo Kilhe Eiki obviously has a very understanding wife, because I don’t know of anyone who’d ever agree to this, no matter what his point was. And he had one. As the backlash hit, Eiki defended his decision by questioning others need to criticise his decision to show “the gift of life.” “If you do not like, tune out?” “I aired it live because people would rather talk about Donald Trumps hair than the blessings in life… get real people… lol.”

Now, in the interests of research, I’ve watched the recording of the stream and… well. It ain’t the most exciting example of The Gift of Life. A bucket of sloths. That’s good. But this is mainly admin. It’s a lot of beeping, talking and bad camerawork, and someone should’ve scripted it better as Eiki isn’t exactly a natural entertainer. Perhaps he was stressed. I remember the birth of my son, and I was so stressed I ate most of the snacks we put in the maternity bag. Well, my ex-wife wasn’t hungry and eating calms me down.

But the delivery of a baby is… well. A bit boring.

There. I said it.

Yes, they might’ve been two of the most important moments of my life, but there was a lot of waiting, not much to do, and a lot of screaming and shouting. A bit like being in the queue in the post office.  I guess things would be different if I was the one doing the pushing. And the screaming. And in some cases the swearing. But men are superfluous at such an event. We’re there as support and we’re not centre stage. It’s not our time to be the centre of attention. So maybe put the camera away and stop trying to be?

Thankfully Mr Eiki didn’t go down the business end during the birth. To be honest, I’m not sure that filming what goes on in a maternity suite and putting it on Facebook is the way to make your point, and while talking about Donald Trump’s hair isn’t exactly the most creative and interesting way of using social media, let’s face it, without it, we wouldn’t have these beauties!

 

What do you think? Would you let your partner live stream your birth?

No? Not even for a blog post?

 

2 comments on Is live streaming a birth on Facebook oversharing?

  • Louise (Little Hearts, Big Love)

    I had my midwives take lots of lovely photos of my birth and my husband did a time-lapse video of it which is amazing to look back on but that is something for us and not something I would share. Personally I do think live-streaming a birth is oversharing slightly but then again nobody has to watch it and is it really any different to showing a birth on programmes like One Born Every Minute?

  • Mads

    No to live streaming for me. I prefer to keep my privates, private!

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