It doesn't bother me. But I come from that generation that puts it all out there, so I am probably just used to it. As I get older, I get more private and post less personal things online. However, what others feel like sharing...just doesn't bother me much. I even kind of like rooting on woman and babies when they post about their cervical progression lol.
This is my third pregnancy and with my first two, I didn't have Facebook at my fingertips (plus it was before everyone had a FB account). I would, however send text messages to certain people (mainly my three sisters and MIL- all BTDT just to keep them updated) with whatever dilation/effacement etc my care provider shared with me. This time around, I don't plan on getting checked before labor, so I won't have that "info". But for me, I'm so interested in birth, I don't care if I read it from someone else on FB. I'm not fazed at all. I just had a friend who gave birth a little more than a month ago, and she posted updates while she was in labor (not like regular ones- she mostly stayed off of FB)- but other people were interested to know too. But I can see why some would be uncomfortable reading all the gory details. Lol! I don't think most people make the connection that it's info received from one's cervix that they wouldn't otherwise share.
For me it's not an issue about "women's issues" or "growing up and getting real" but the fact that more and more in our society everything (and I mean everything) needs to be displayed on the internet for everyone to see. I would object to a male detailing his bowel movements on Facebook, and that's just as natural as a woman giving birth. I don't want to hear about people's tampons, yeast, ovarian, cysts, etc., just like I don't want to hear about men's erectile dysfunction or urination schedules. This isn't about shaming women's bodies and abilities, it's about carving out (or trying to re-create) a place where private functions remain private. I've shared 20 week ultrasound pictures that look like a baby, but I won't be posting genital shots and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think our society has generally moved toward a no-limits approach to information and I and many other women on this board, apparently, do not see this as a positive trend. Ultimately, it's different strokes for different folks, but if you post about your cervical mucus on my Facebook wall, I'm unfriending you because it indicates that we don't share the same values.
How very "different strokes for different folks" of you. lol The attitude that you can't be friends with someone because she says something that you don't like suggests that you don't actually believe that line AT ALL. I'm very amused by seeing someone use that line in the same paragraph in which she shared that she'd unfriend someone over something so minor. Sure, I'd never tell anyone about my CM on facebook, but unfriending someone over it is pretty much the exact opposite of the entire idea of "different strokes for different folks". That line is about accepting differences. Unfriending people for saying things you find too private is about NOT accepting differences.
And for the record, I'm really sick and tired of giving birth being compared to taking a dump. I mean, really. My baby is not a piece of crap.
Exactly! When I read that I laughed and then wondered if she's blocked me on MDC ?!
eh. I don't care if someone wants to tell me and all their facebook friends about their dilation. I only get annoyed when other people then assume that everyone wants to share that information and they start asking me about my cervix.
Plummetting, the two positions I laid out are actually perfectly compatible. I don't care that there are people out there who post about their cervical mucus or who overshare pictures of their dogs, but I don't have to be friends with them on a social networking site. I can support people's rights to do whatever thing I might find objectionable, but I don't have to agree with it in my own life and I don't have to welcome them into my life as a friend. Now the issue of oversharing is usually a pretty minor one, but it can become a serious distraction. I have friends who post constant baby pictures and so on, which is fine because I like looking at them, but I have unfriended or hid people from my wall who post constant affirmations or who constantly bombard me with political opinions. I would certainly do the same for constant cervix updates.
The idea that I can support the existence of other value systems and ideas apart from my own does not necessarily mean I have to be friends with everyone regardless of their beliefs or values. If you truly believed that you can be friends with people regardless of their beliefs and values, I would be very concerned about your definition of friendship. (And finally, there's a distinction here between "unfriending" someone on a social networking site and actually not being friends with them.... I was merely speaking of the former)
What I was really arguing for is carving out a sphere of privacy.... When I come to MDC, I expect people to be talking about mucus plugs and bloody show and everything else related to pregnancy and I welcome it and take part in the conversation. I don't need that kind of information on my Facebook wall. So a lot of this is context-dependent.
Plummetting, the two positions I laid out are actually perfectly compatible. I don't care that there are people out there who post about their cervical mucus or who overshare pictures of their dogs, but I don't have to be friends with them on a social networking site. I can support people's rights to do whatever thing I might find objectionable, but I don't have to agree with it in my own life and I don't have to welcome them into my life as a friend. Now the issue of oversharing is usually a pretty minor one, but it can become a serious distraction. I have friends who post constant baby pictures and so on, which is fine because I like looking at them, but I have unfriended or hid people from my wall who post constant affirmations or who constantly bombard me with political opinions. I would certainly do the same for constant cervix updates.
The idea that I can support the existence of other value systems and ideas apart from my own does not necessarily mean I have to be friends with everyone regardless of their beliefs or values. If you truly believed that you can be friends with people regardless of their beliefs and values, I would be very concerned about your definition of friendship. (And finally, there's a distinction here between "unfriending" someone on a social networking site and actually not being friends with them.... I was merely speaking of the former)
What I was really arguing for is carving out a sphere of privacy.... When I come to MDC, I expect people to be talking about mucus plugs and bloody show and everything else related to pregnancy and I welcome it and take part in the conversation. I don't need that kind of information on my Facebook wall. So a lot of this is context-dependent.
Re: bolded: Yeah but "cervix updates" wouldn't really be constant, right? I mean, whatever floats your boat and all...but cervical dilation and accompanying "updates" would be a pretty time-limited, event specific thing, right?
I think it's also very important to note that when a woman way overshares (in your view) about something relating to her body during pregnancy, it is out of sheer excitement! We all know how easy it is to become lost in the excitement and joy of FINALLY dilating, FINALLY being so close to meeting your new baby....
Certainly if a woman has been annoying the crap out of you for a long time and then starts posting things that you are think are "yucky" or whatever when she's getting close to her birthing time..yeah, pull the plug on that FB "friendship" for sure. But I have a hard time believing anyone would actually be so offended by that - "Wooohooo, I'm 3 cm dilated and losing mucus plug!" - that they would actually defriend. That just seems a little, weird.
Your choice, again, you have to be comfortable with what's on your wall...but is it really that gross to you? What if somebody posts "Oh my god my sinus infection is so bad I think I'm going to die...the amount of snot in my face ACTUALLY feels like it's killing me" - I mean, that sounds WAY more gross than "my cervix, hoorah!" - would you defriend the "Snot Oversharer" - or is it just because the cervix is located in the (shhhh!) VAGINA! (eek!) that it is so intensely improper to you?
It's excitement, people. Most people who would post something about their cervix in sheer excitement and baby-joy, are people who would NEVER talk about their lady parts on FB normally. I, for one, would say "good riddance" to a "friend" who would cease internet communication with me over my excited declaration that after nearly a year of waiting, my body is showing signs of being close to ready to bring my beautiful child into the world.
Maybe me being almost 37 weeks pregnant and dwelling in that place of ACUTE obsession over when I'm finally going to meet my baby I've been so patiently waiting for just makes me a bit more sympathetic to the "cervical overshare"??
I'm so dang happy that my friends aren't squeamish, that they're all women who are comfortable with and knowledgeable about the human body. I'd be thrilled to be FB dumped over cervical breaking news because it means that person ain't for me any more than I am for them.
I'd be fine with it, as I was with my neighbor telling me about her daughter's (slightly preterm) progress. But then again I studied so much when I was pregnant, have an intense interest in birth, and hope to become a midwife after my kids go to school. But I would gently chime in about how it doesn't actually predict when labor will start but may mean a faster early phase of labor when things do get going (or in her case better chance of induction working if they decide on it).
Me too. I'm not weirded about the birthing process and sharing it, but the telling the whole world is a bit much. I'll certainly keep my mom and mom-in-law appraised but pretty much no one else. I did however post on FB my sonogram of my 7 week old, I was so freakin' over the moon that she had a heartbeat and was there and alive and well!!! So maybe I shouldn't complain about others on FB. 
I think the OP and some others would like this site: /http://www.stfuparentsblog.com/.
I think pregnancy and childbirth are magical, wondrous things that take place. I offer frequent updates to close friends and family when they happen to me and expect nothing less when friends are having their babies. I just don't do it on FB. In fact, I'm nearly 6 months pregnant and haven't "announced" my pregnancy on FB, nor do I intend to. Being so public is just not my style though.
I think it is odd for several reasons.
1) i limit my friends on FB. If you're not ACTUALLY my friend then you're not going to be my FB friend! I don't get people who have public profiles or who allow people who once dated a guy they met on the 8th grade school trip to be their "friend". I frequently weed out my list. I have naked, graphic homebirth pics (no actual vagina shots, but lots of boob/side-boob and one of a knotted cord across my belly still obviously running inside me) and i have never had them reported or complained about because i am CAREFUL about who would get to see them. If i announced right now that i have masses of CM due to my early pregnancy state there wouldn't be a shocked person to read it, there's no one there i wouldn't say it to the face of.
2) I'm in the UK where cervical checks are for late (40+ or 41+ depending on region) pregnancy and labour. What are these women DOING in labour that they are labouring enough to need a VE but still ok to be pottering about on FB!? My labours were 89mins and 61mins, no time for drugs, at home both time. I cannot really imagine doing what that felt like for 4 or 6 or 19 hours, but i doubt it would be so much easier and less intense that i'd be posting on FB during it.
telling the whole world is a bit much.
exactly.
I'm kind of a birth junkie, so I absolutely love hearing these sorts of details. Although, I usually end up frustrated because their doctors are idiots, but that's something else altogether. I don't mind hearing about it, and when I post things of that nature I'm sure that they are only visible by people that I want to hear, like close family and friends. I try and keep my facebook friend list relatively small so that I know I'm only sharing with a select group of people. But I certainly know that everyone isn't so deliberate in their sharing!
I share what others might consider TMI all the time. I think that is because I genuinely want to know TMI about others. It's the thing my friends love most about me. And its the way I've made a lot of friends. I can honestly say that every person I've met and been given the chance to learn about who they are is an incredible human being. Most of my friends are Christian and conservative and I'm about as crunchy-granola as they come, but we get along because we respect each other and because I know in their hearts they are living what is true for them even though it is different than what is true for me (or we hold some of the same truths, but have different ways in which we live those truths). I have found though that the more I know about someone the easier it is to love them unconditionally and respect our differences. For me personally, not sharing all of me would not be true to who I am, but I try not to make others uncomfortable--there is something to be said for reading social cues, and that is hard to do on Facebook. There are things that society considers more and less appropriate and sharing the progress of ones nether regions falls into the socially less appropriate box. And because of the culture we grow up in a lot of things from the less appropriate box make us uncomfortable. It sucks to get online and read something that makes you scrunch up your face and go, "Really?!" I think if I found myself in that situation I would the be happy that she is living her life, send positive thoughts her way, and hide her posts from my wall or remove her from my friends if I thought she was going to continue posting things that would make me uncomfortable. I also try to think about a moment when I've accidentally over-shared inappropriately and how people's reactions affected me. Even when I am uncomfortable with people over-sharing, I try my best to be tolerant and accepting when they do.
One of my favorite things about TMI is that moment when you realize that something that is totally socially unacceptable that happened to you also happened to a friend. It could be something as silly as a bodily function or as life changing as an intimate experience, but in that moment you realize that you're not the only one and its a special bond to share. I like being the friend that my conservative friends can share those experiences with because I see how it relieves them and makes them smile to be able show someone the parts of themselves they keep appropriately to themselves. I have not experienced pregnancy yet, but I'm so grateful to the brave women who have shared all the nitty-gritty details. I think the more women share, the more normalcy we can perceive in the birth process, and the more comfortable we can become with such a beautiful, natural process.
too bad I don't live in Maryland! You sound like an awesome friend to have.
I'm kind of a birth junkie, so I absolutely love hearing these sorts of details. Although, I usually end up frustrated because their doctors are idiots, but that's something else altogether.
So true!! 
Trekkingirl, I wish you did too! I need more crunchy, TMI moms in my life now that I am prego :) I'm hoping I'll find a few more when I hit up LLL.
Seeing status updates about that type of stuff doesn't really bother me, what bothers me is that it's becoming more and more expected for people to share every single detail of their bodily functions. The very first time I posted anything about my son's existence on FB was a picture of him after he was born. I heard later that people thought that was weird and there were various rumours about why I did that.
I've noticed that, at least with my friends list, the people who are most vocal about how much they love their baby/life/significant other, etc. are the ones who are trying to maintain an image. The ones who are actually happy about such things don't need to report them in a Facebook status.
She's excited about it, so of course she wants to share. I don't think it's weird or gross. If someone feels uncomfortable by it, they can ignore her posts.
I don't think it's fair to call what she's doing weird or gross. She shouldn't be shamed for sharing something that's so transformative for her.
I don't understand why anyone would let these posts about her cervix bother them. It's so easy to skim over someone's posts on Facebook or temporarily take them out of your news feed.
In response to another person on this thread, I've made several jokes on Facebook about "going to make babies with the hubby!" I'm glad I apparently have friends with a sense of humor.
We're in a time where people share the 99 cent hamburger they got from McDonalds on Instagram. If you don't like it, don't pay attention. No need to make it a point that you're seemingly "better" than that.
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