Snapchat Baby

This post is also from September when my laptop was broken - here it is in full in case you missed it on www.Evoke.ie

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So Grace Mongey, aka Faces by Grace, Snap Chatted her way through labour this week. Now, she didn't hold the phone between her legs and capture *the moment* her baby girl emerged into this world. But she did update her tens of thousands of followers during early labour, updated them when she was at 7cm and 10cm and snapped a gorgeous pic to announce BabyFaces arrival. 

I've seen a lot of comments online about how "nothing is sacred" anymore and that the whole thing was a bit "TMI". But I think it was brilliant. In fact, I'd nearly love to get pregnant again myself just so I could share the experience with people. Not that I have tens of thousands of followers on social media. Or not that I actually want to get pregnant again. But still. I would totally be up for this if I was having another baby.

Women are constantly told how awful childbirth and labour is. Any depiction of it in films or on the telly involves blood, sweat, tears and a whole lot of screaming and roaring. It looks terrifying and like nothing you'd ever want to actually go through. Grace's snaps showed labour in a different light. She was calm. She was smiling. She was relaxed. Her partner, Chris, or Kips for anyone who follows the extremely likeable couple on Snapchat, wasn't a bumbling buffoon being roared at or having his fingers squeezed to breaking point. They showed what labour is like for a lot of people: an intimate, beautiful and life-changing experience that doesn't have to be scary or awful. 

The more women who are empowered to have positive birthing experiences and try things like the hynobirthing that Grace advocated during her pregnancy, the more the fear will be taken out of childbirth. 

I was always terrified of labour because of the aforementioned depictions of it that surrounded me but when I actually got pregnant and realised that giving birth was part of that process, I did a thing called Gentlebirth to help me prepare. And I managed to have drug free labours without fear. 

Now, don't get me wrong: they weren't walks in the park, but my labours were positive experiences and I wish I had videoed them or taken photos as I'm sure in time the little details will fade from my memory. Having children is the biggest thing to have ever happened to me, yet I've got no videos, no pictures to look back on. Childbirth - in fact so many 'women's issues' are such taboo, even in this day and age. They really don't have to be.