'WombTube': Should You Broadcast Pregnancy?

When women share pregnancy test results on YouTube, are they oversharing?

ByABC News
June 9, 2011, 10:45 PM

June 10, 2011 — -- Every woman remembers the moment she discovers she's pregnant.

That magical moment, once very private, has now become very public as thousands of moms-to-be are taking to YouTube to announce their good news.

"I'm like, really scared and really nervous," one woman announced in a video she posted to the popular website.

In some cases, women are sharing the news with total strangers all across cyberspace before they tell their own husbands or partners.

Lucy Eades from Forth Worth, Texas, posted news her second child was on the way on YouTube in 2008. More than 128,000 people have watched.

That child, Kacen, is now 2 years old and Eades, 28, is pregnant again. She's due in three weeks with her third child, and more than 14,000 people watched as she found out that good news.

But not every video has a happy ending. One woman who revealed a disappointing negative result online did so as a way of sharing her frustrating fertility issues with other women who understand what she's going through.

"They want to be heard and they want be understood, and they want to have other people who are in their like situation really say, 'you're not crazy and I understand the emotional power of waiting for this baby,'" psychologist Lynne Kenney told "Good Morning America."

But Kenney, who practices pediatric psychology in Scottsdale, Ariz., warned that celebrating too soon -- and with thousands of people watching -- could be emotionally devastating.

An estimated 80 percent of miscarriages occur in the first three months of pregnancy, according to the Mayo Clinic.

That's why many women who are still in their first trimester of pregnancy only share the news with close family and friends.

"You want to think about protecting your heart and your privacy a little bit, as you're sharing this early information with the world," Kenney cautioned.

Other women have even taken viewers beyond the initial good news, documenting their entire pregnancy, from the first ultrasound to the actual birth.

Eades has 1.7 million people following the progress of her baby on the way.

She has asked followers to enter a contest to guess the gender, weight and birth date, and she posts her pregnancy issues on Twitter and Facebook.

Eades plans to even video log, or vlog, the actual birth of her third child, whom she plans to deliver at home.

"There have been poeple that have commented and said 'nobody cares, why do you do this? who cares? who cares to see your life in this aspect?' But I feel like it's different," Eades said. "We're there for the same purpose and goal, we want that connection, we want to feel that this is normal and to be able to share a happy experience with somebody else that can understand how happy and joyous it really is."

Click here to return to the "Good Morning America" website.

But not every video has a happy ending. One woman who revealed a disappointing negative result online did so as a way of sharing her frustrating fertility issues with other women who understand what she's going through.

\"They want to be heard and they want be understood, and they want to have other people who are in their like situation really say, 'you're not crazy and I understand the emotional power of waiting for this baby,'\" psychologist Lynne Kenney told \"Good Morning America.\"

But Kenney, who practices pediatric psychology in Scottsdale, Ariz., warned that celebrating too soon -- and with thousands of people watching -- could be emotionally devastating.

An estimated 80 percent of miscarriages occur in the first three months of pregnancy, according to the Mayo Clinic.

That's why many women who are still in their first trimester of pregnancy only share the news with close family and friends.

\"You want to think about protecting your heart and your privacy a little bit, as you're sharing this early information with the world,\" Kenney cautioned.

Other women have even taken viewers beyond the initial good news, documenting their entire pregnancy, from the first ultrasound to the actual birth.

Eades has 1.7 million people following the progress of her baby on the way.

She has asked followers to enter a contest to guess the gender, weight and birth date, and she posts her pregnancy issues on Twitter and Facebook.

Eades plans to even video log, or vlog, the actual birth of her third child, whom she plans to deliver at home.

\"There have been poeple that have commented and said 'nobody cares, why do you do this? who cares? who cares to see your life in this aspect?' But I feel like it's different,\" Eades said. \"We're there for the same purpose and goal, we want that connection, we want to feel that this is normal and to be able to share a happy experience with somebody else that can understand how happy and joyous it really is.\"

Click here to return to the \"Good Morning America\" website.

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