Kristy Wilgis disagrees. She said that she welcomed her husband tweeting during the delivery in part because the family had just moved from Virginia Beach, Va., and it was one of the best ways to keep everyone informed.
"Frankly, there was nothing he could do for me then," she added. "I didn't want to be touched or massaged; I know some expectant mothers like that, but I was just the opposite. It was the best outlet for him, to talk about it via computer. It was really cool, and I got a chance to see it from his perspective. Things were really fuzzy the whole day and it refreshed my memory of things I had forgotten about."
Sometimes expectant fathers discover that continuous tweeting is not possible. McDermott began tweeting early on during a delivery process that began at 8:30 a.m. and ended when Ferris was born at 6 p.m., but he had to stop when he was called upon to assist his wife's pushing for lengthy periods.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in Wednesday's editions about fathers tweeting their children's births used an incorrect pronoun in referring to Michael Schwartzberg of Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Schwartzberg is a he. The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.
He did manage to tweet when the doctor gave the couple a half-hour break between pushes. After the birth, he returned to Twitter; his final tweet was accompanied by a photo of his wife holding the baby. He says he looks back on those photos at least once a week.
"My wife isn't as sold on Twitter as I am," McDermott added. "I'm an evangelist, and she's a skeptic."
But Cheryl Knauer of Parkville is sold. She has asked her husband, Jason, to tweet during the delivery of their third child next month and has given him free rein to post whatever comes to mind.
"I think I'll be busy," she says with a laugh. "For us, we talk through Twitter and Facebook with most of our family and friends on a regular basis, so it seems like a natural thing to be communicating with them during the delivery and telling them how things are going."
Wilgis has copied his tweets and will save them with the hopes of one day passing them onto his daughter. Then she'll know about the most memorable moments of the day - including when her big brother Caleb cried when he and dad got stuck in an elevator shortly after Ainsley's birth.
"I think it's amazing to be able to look back on that moment in life," said Wilgis, "and my daughter is going to be able to know exactly what her dad was thinking every few minutes, over the course of two days, when she was being born."
Dad's play-by-play
Tally Wilgis, pastor of Captivate Church in Baltimore, tweeted while his wife, Kristy, gave birth to their second child, Ainsley, at St. Joseph Medical Center. Here are some of Wilgis' tweets from the labor and delivery:
