First-Time Mom Live-Tweets Birth With Unflinching Honesty, Tweets Go Viral

By Alyssa Newcomb January 10, 2014

When Ruth Iorio went into labor on Christmas night, she decided to document her journey in real-time on social media and even designated a hashtag, #ruthshomebirth, for her friends, family and curious strangers to follow.

Through her 12-hour labor, which began when she was doing housework, Iorio, whose maiden name is Fowler, posted photos taken by her husband, photojournalist Jared Iorio, to Instagram and tweeted what appeared to be her raw, honest-to-God truth about the stages her body went through as she waited for the baby, whom she lovingly called "the beast," to be born.

(ruthiorio/Instagram)

"It was a quite a nice atmosphere," Iorio told ABCNews.com today, laughing. "Every single contraction [my husband] pressed on my back with one hand and the other would be out taking a picture of me."

And now, the unflinchingly honest photos and tweets have gone viral.

The British-born Iorio, whose father is a doctor who delivers babies, said she opted for a home birth because it's more common for midwives to care for pregnancies in the U.K., while she said "docs are for emergencies."

Still, she said she knows it isn't for everyone, and if a woman is more comfortable giving birth in a hospital, that's where she should go.

For Iorio, social media was a welcome distraction from the labor pains she was experiencing.

No detail was too graphic or private. Iorio remained committed to tweeting the raw truth about giving birth.

Iorio shared a photo of herself in the bathtub, waiting for her little "Beast" with a whiskey sour in hand, she wrote.

After her bath, Iorio said she her contractions slowed and she laid down to rest, but experienced "nasty back labor."

"Erratic timing. Back pain. F-, this really does hurt," she wrote during the early hours of Dec. 26.

At 6:20 a.m., Iorio said her water broke. She posted an Instagram photo of herself kneeling in the shower.

Iorio's doula arrived to help deliver her baby. Twelve hours after his mother began documenting his arrival into the world, Nye Soledad Iorio was born at 9:04 a.m. on Dec. 26.

When the doula realized the placenta wasn't coming out, Iorio said she was taken to UCLA Medical Center, which is a ten-minute drive from her home.

At the hospital, Iorio said she had to have a blood transfusion.

In keeping with the theme of documenting every detail, no matter how private or painful it may seem, Iorio tweeted a photo of her doula, Allegra, next to a bloody placenta.

"Yeah the placenta is crazy innit?" she wrote.

It isn't the first time Iorio has offered an unflinchingly honest look at her life. After college and struggling to establish herself as a New York City journalist since she did not have a work visa, Iorio, then Ruth Fowler, turned to stripping. In 2009, she published a memoir, "Girl, Undressed" about the experience.

Iorio said she and her husband are turning the photos into a book to share with her son when he's older.

"It was a difficult birth but nothing out of the ordinary," she said. "I was grateful to be at home."