Finding out you are pregnant
can fill your mind with all manner of question and in days of old you would
call your mother, sister, friend or a favored community smart cookie to get the
skinny on what to expect. Today a wealth
of information is at your fingertips via the internet. Even the least net savvy person can find
anything about anything with a few key strokes and clicks on massive search
clients like Google, Yahoo and America Online.
I thought it would be
prudent to peruse some of the more highly ranked pregnancy, birth and parenting
websites to identify the ones which really embrace choices in childbirth,
mother and baby friendly options and the midwifery model of care. I started out at obvious choices like
Babycenter.com, Pregnancy.org and Parentsplace.com (which is a feature of
iVillage.com) which are the top 3 information related sites (not directly
trying to sell you something) listed when you search for the word pregnancy on all 3 search clients named
above.
Babycenter.com is a well
executed website, which I’m sure comes from the many commercial sponsors that
they have listed and display advertisements for. It is relatively user friendly and easy to
navigate. They have discussion groups
for all stages of pregnancy and groups listed by month and year of a pregnancy
due date. The discussion on the lists is
predominantly medical and pretty mainstream.
The one redeeming factor was that when I dug deeper into the birth related
support discussion forums there actually were
discussions specific to natural childbirth, homebirth and choosing a
midwife.
When I searched Babycenter.com
for the keyword midwife, several articles came up, but each article was stamped
with a mark of approval from the medical advisory board, and none of the
articles were incredibly encouraging of the use of midwives as primary care
providers for maternity care, but rather stressed the importance of having
physician interaction as necessary for safe midwifery care. They did give some good links to places to
get more information on midwifery in each state and how to find a midwife in
your area. I also searched for
homebirth, and was directed to the homebirth discussion board, and a search for
mother-friendly netted me nothing at all. The most useful thing I found on
Babycenter.com was the pregnancy calculator, and the option to get a weekly
email with your baby’s development.
Pregnancy.org at first
glanced seems well organized and somewhat user friendly, however you have to
find the search function from a drop down menu, which is more difficult to
locate than if it were simply placed on the home page. They have a resident CNM expert to answer
questions in the Ask the Midwife
column, but I found her answers to many of the questions very guarded and not
informative. Each one I read put me in
mind of What to Expect type follow through
that is, “don’t ask me, ask your doctor”. This demeanor is not really in line with the
midwifery model of care, as it takes the responsibility for ones health and
wellbeing out of the hands of the pregnant mother and places it solely in the
hands of her provider.
Another
bothersome aspect of this site is that when I searched for the keyword homebirth,
there was a sponsor link at the very top of the page to an obstetrician’s
personal blog (an online diary of sorts) that is very anti-homebirth, who is
using fabricated statistics and scare tactics to support her militant
attitude.
This site also has some
webcast videos that are intended to be informational, but I found them to be
far from falling within any type of evidence based care. One specifically entitled Induction of Labor gave reasons for
inductions that sounded much like a malpractice attorney scripted it
entirely.
In their defense they do
have homebirth discussion forums much like babycenter.com, proving that there
are wise women wherever you go who refuse to lie in the lie that birth must be a medically managed process. The overall feel of this site is one of an
overly medical attitude toward pregnancy and childbirth, not supportive of
consumer driven choices or mother/baby friendly care. I won’t even go into this writer’s feelings
regarding the midwife who does not embrace the midwifery model.
The last site I visited was
Parentsplace.com (which is the pregnancy and parenting aspect of
iVillage.com). Other than being
assaulted with GIANT advertisements when you first enter the site, the overall
feeling is one of better support and truly imparting information. It is well organized and easy to
navigate. When I searched the keyword midwife (with the search function which
is on the main page incidentally), I came upon several Ask the Midwife type articles which were well rounded with regards
to comparing midwifery care and obstetric care.
A search for mother friendly yielded many pages of information,
including a link to the 10 Questions to Ask
Your Provider pamphlet from CIMS (Coalition for Improving Maternity
Services), the establishing organization for the Mother/Baby friendly
guidelines for hospitals and professionals.
One last search, keyword homebirth yielded again many pages of
true articles and not just discussion forums, presenting information on the
safety and availability of homebirth as a true option in maternity care. These articles were authored by the likes of
Henci Goer and Barbera Harper, who are both well known activists for choices
and access to alternatives in maternity care.
iVillage also has many discussion forums for both medical and more
complementary care during pregnancy and birth, and I feel it is a well rounded
environment in which an expecting mother can explore her options with less
pressure to conform.
These three websites are but
a few in the vast ocean of information regarding childbirth one can find on the
internet. I simply chose the top three
listed on major search engines. In
future articles I would like to explore other websites, and maybe set up an
environment for reader evaluation of these sites. Feel free to write me and let me know what
your favorite pregnancy, birth and parenting websites are and why. I look forward to hearing from you, and safe
surfing.
© Jo L. Davis, DEM, PMUS, EMT-B, 2009