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Being pregnant, especially for the first time, is a big deal.
I am just discovering this, being now 4 months pregnant. During this life changing time, you need someone to talk to. But before the magical 3 months margin, when you cross over to the “safer sideâ€, it’s a custom not to reveal to anyone except your spouse that you are – hopefully – carrying life inside you. In their quest to share the good yet uncertain news, more and more young women find themselves looking for peer support and opening their hearts in different forms of social media. Myself included.
Discussion forums:
The great thing about discussion forums is that there are so many of them out there. Within one specific forum, there are different kinds of groups for different needs: those wanting to become pregnant, those not successful at becoming pregnant, those thinking they are pregnant but not so sure about it, and those who are surely pregnant and who are organized into different groups according to the months of their due dates.
The beauty of these forums is that you can sign in anonymously and talk to strangers in the same position, look for the same kind of symptoms and compare the most reliable pregnancy tests on the market. And while the information you get is subjective, it’s been filtered through the experiences of many moms-to-be just like yourself. This is exactly the information you need.
(Eg. BabyandBump, Zappybaby Forum)
Mommy Bloggers:
In addition to forums, I also follow a few active moms-to-be-bloggers. What pulls me to these blogs are the funny and earnest day-to-day experiences these women, whether located in my town or the other side of the world, have to share with the rest of the readership in the web. Besides some acquaintances, none of my friends are pregnant at the moment, and frankly, those friends who have small children and who could have experiences to share, are too damn busy to meet face to face with me. So I happily turn to my fellow prospective mums online to hear their timely and often very personal experiences.
(Eg. moms.alltop.com, De Ultieme Mama Blogs Lijst!)
Social networks for moms:
In addition to blogs and forums, I’ve also visited social networks dedicated to moms. In addition to being able to create your own baby page with your most important pieces of information, these sites allow you to post pictures, answer polls and find lots of useful information ranging from healthy diets to problems school aged children come across with. In addition to the useful information, there’s also lots of fun, not-so-useful content to spend your time with.
(Eg. Café Mom, 9maand.com)
My thirst for knowledge around this phenomenon seems inexhaustible. I’ve carried home stacks of books from the library and bought a bunch of baby magazines. While the library books give you good suggestions on baby names and professional advice on what to do in case some specific symptoms appear, these books are not going to tell you that the name Antarcticus you found in the book and are seriously considering, is actually ridiculous and your child will be forever bullied at school for his idiotic name if you are foolish enough to go with it. This is what the moms signed into the names-for-my-baby discussion group on my favorite discussion forum would tell me right off the bat.
Another problem with the magazines is that they are often packed with advertisements. It’s hard to know if the information is reliable and clinically tested when every other page is an add of a sponsor. No thanks; I’d rather adjust my purchasing plans according to the advice of the subjective unsponsored moms.
Social media sites are great sources of up-to-date and candid opinions about the best fitting pregnancy clothes, the safest strollers and multivitamins that are suited for pregnant mothers. A wealth of information for anyone interested in understanding babies, moms and whatever is essential in their world.
Photo from:http://www.medicalfacts.nl/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/baby.jpg
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