Branston (pickle) Hix or Branstons (pampers.co.uk)

Member Name: whitby

Product:	pampers.co.uk
Date:	03/07/04 (957 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: User friendly, Personalised

Disadvantages: None! Mindfield of information

Thank god for Pampers!

Nope, I haven?t had an accident but I?m seven months pregnant and although I?m aged 30 and my Mum is a Registered Childminder, I have never paid too much attention to those little ?bundles of joy? that oh so many people exclaim ?gogo gaga? over. So when I discovered in the New Year that I was pregnant, and the old biological clock ticked or thundered in I set about treating my pregnancy like a work-based project!

Research?. Research?. Research ? daren?t trust myself on the practical yet, especially as it was doing that sort of thing that got me into this situation!

Bearing in mind the above, I was quite confident that I knew most of the theory about raising a child. Having watched many a young thing grow up under my Mum?s loving care it would have been hard not to have picked up the basics. Even so pregnancy itself is not something I was prepared for.

So much advice, so many old wives tails and many dos and do nots.

So I steamed in, bought every pregnancy magazine available, religiously sent off for every ?help? pack in the free information guides that my midwife gave me and read like a mad woman. However, a lot of the information was contradictory, so I set about finding an online resource that could help me through my pregnancy stage by stage. The criteria that I personally needed were:

Reputable knowledge source
Week-by-Week support
Easy to understand

I had a list of about ten websites that I selected from my various paper resources, and to be honest, I signed up for every single one. This was when I was three months pregnant?.

The one site that I have kept my membership up to date with is pampers.com ? formally pampers.co.uk. To me the fact that the other nine have fallen into the deep, dark despairs of my computer history indicate that to me, pampers.com meets all of my needs and more.

Here?s what it does for me:

REPUTABLE KNOWLEDGE SOURCE <
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Pampers are one of the well-known nappy companies who are part of the Procter and Gamble Group. They are tried and tested by many a new mother and although a little pricier than store brands they are a trusted and respected company.

MEMBERSHIP / WEEK-BY-WEEK SUPPORT

When I first visited the site I thought that signing up as a member would just lead to the usual flood of baby related adverts and junk mail. However little did I realise that this could be one of the most worthwhile memberships that I have undertaken. Enrolment was quick and simple and allows me to access my own database which relates to my pregnancy. The added value comes as the pampers site also sees me and little baby Jack Daniel (yep, after the drink!) through those first few years of his life.

Each week I receive an update of key activities, questions and answers relating to my body changes and other useful information that is specific to my stage of pregnancy. This update is received in a ?news bulletin? format via my email, it is reassuringly branded with the pampers logo and colouring and provides useful links to more information. This I find particularly useful as much of the information appears in different sources that I have already read, so as opposed to reading through a long tiresome email and getting bored (and more than likely giving up) I can scroll through and select the areas that interest me. This week for example I looked into the poll results that showed that 60% of men get physical symptoms of pregnancy when their partner is expecting ? Ahha! That?s why Ian is eating for two and getting heartburn!

EASY TO UNDERSTAND

Terminology is broken down and deeper links are set to aid new mothers who want to explore all these new terms. This is great as those going through a second pregnancy are not bogged down with the ?trivia? they have already learnt. An example of how the site helped me is when at 30 weeks I visited my midwife and she
had to pause our examination as I was experiencing a Braxton Hicks Contraction ? Or Branston (pickle) Hix as Ian calls them! I panicked as I thought these came near to the birth, however upon reading up on the site I learnt that they do happen earlier on and that my symptoms were completely in line with my gestation (oops jargon ? number of weeks pregnant!). See pampers have taught me all those baby terms already!

There is a wealth of information on the website, however due to the easy link tabs at the top I can ensure that I use my time at pampers.com effectively by just selecting the weeks surrounding my timeline. I haven?t delved too far into those sections that relate to after the birth for example.

ADDED BONUS ? MY BABY SECTION

Pampers seem to have tried very hard to make their site personal to their users. The added bonus was the section entitled ?My Baby? which enables me to track useful dates and times based on when my baby is due. These include the safety checklist, immunisation calendar, check-up calendar, baby milestones and growth charts.


CONCLUSION

I?ve always been a career-minded person, and as I?ve already admitted I have tackled this pregnancy as a military operation. I can appreciate that for some new mums, the interactive and personal aspects of this web site may be a little over bearing and hard to complete or follow due to time constraints, but for people like myself it is a pure godsend.

I don?t visit any other baby website, I won?t be visiting any other baby website and I thoroughly recommend them to other people with buns in their oven?

If you are expecting or planning to conceive then get your butt over to pampers.com now.

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