Would you let your partner live-tweet your baby's birth?

Mr McManus posted this Instagram photo shortly after his son's birth

Aidan McManus, a 32-year old father of two from Merseyside, documented the birth of his son Finn via Twitter and Instagram, starting from their arrival at Ormskirk General Hospital and continuing throughout the Caesarian delivery.

Mr McManus told the UK's Daily Mail, "From taking each photo, applying a filter, writing the caption and tweeting it probably took about 20 seconds so I was able to get them straight out there for people to see". He confessed to being a "huge Twitter user" and says he got the idea from friends who have tweeted their own weddings.

With wife Tracy focussed on the task of giving birth, it was left to Mr McManus' discretion to decide which photos the world would see and what would remain private. He told the Daily Mail, "We didn't really discuss it beforehand. She didn't give me any rules or dos and don'ts, but in the end there were a lot more graphic photos I wasn't willing to share". During the time the family were in the hospital, Mr McManus posted eight photos through Twitter.

Some of the tweets Mr McManus posted from the delivery room

The decision by the father of two to live-tweet his son's birth has prompted the question - Do people, particularly parents, share too much online? A 2012 US study by Intel found that 90 per cent of adults think people share too much, and another recent study by Internet security firm AVG revealed that 81 per cent of kids have an online presence before they reach the age of two.

Just last week a US father faced criticism for his Tumblr page Reasons why my son is crying, with other parents and bloggers saying they would never post online images showing their children crying or in distress, as it is unfair on the child.

Digital Producer and Strategist, Anna Spargo-Ryan, told Practical Parenting that parents do share too much about themselves and their children online, "often more than family and friends care about". But her concern is the motivation for posting, "For me, the line is crossed when it moves from 'sharing' to 'promoting' - when the desire to share outweighs the child's right to privacy and protection, or when the benefit to the parent is greater than the benefit to the child", she says.

Spargo-Ryan adds that parents share for different reasons - often to seek genuine support and information. In these instances parents must weigh up the need for information against the potential harm to a child's happiness or safety. "Parents need to put children first when considering what they post online", she says.

And it's not just mums and dads who are guilty of over-sharing. Online-education.net says that among US Facebook users 4.7 million share health conditions, 4.6 million give away details of their love life and 2.6 million relate stories about their alcohol use. A huge 4.8 million regularly broadcast when they leave their house.

This type of over-sharing can be problematic as users leave themselves open to scams and other crimes, especially given the number of users who don't set privacy controls (20 per cent of US Facebook users). Other users simply find over-sharing just too annoying, citing their pet over-sharing peeves as people who constantly complain, post revealing or explicit photos and those guilty of generally posting 'TMI' (too much information).

Tell us what you think - do we give away too much information about ourselves online? Do you think parents over-share on social media when it comes to their children and what do you think crosses the line?