Babyexpert.com (Prima Baby website) (Prima Baby & Pregnancy)

Member Name: oioiyou

Product:	Prima Baby & Pregnancy
Date:	15/02/09 (191 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun, informative, social network

Disadvantages: occasional web glitches

I went on maternity early in my second pregnancy and found myself a little bored after a while. The house could only be so clean, my older child was in school, and all my friends were at work. After reading some pregnancy & baby magazines I began surfing the net to keep myself busy and see the recommended sites. I came across a really good bunch of competitions on Babyexpert.com and thought why not give it a go. To enter them I had to become a member of the site. Thankfully it wasn't a long logging in process. It seemed as if there were new competitions every week or two so I kept popping in to have a look. Just to add - you don't need to be a member to access this well of information, (only for the competitions).

Slowly I started looking around the rest of the site. It's really easy to navigate with all tabs well labelled. There is a huge forum area which was a lovely find as there were at any time of day other people to message. I found myself asking pregnancy advice and answering queries from others. I began to know a lot of the other users and found that I could ask just about anything from pregnancy to ideas of what to have for dinner. There have been quite a number of times when I or others have gone into the forums just to have a rant about something that has happened, the support network is superb.

More recently Babyexpert has opened a number of extra forums to include specific ones dedicated to what month and year you are expecting or had your baby in. I know most of the ladies in my particular forum but I tend to go more in the baby (in general) forum as there are more people in that one. It took me a little time to get my own picture uploaded to the site, but that was most likely down to me being a bit slow rather then the site not working. My homepage was set up to show how long until my baby was due and in my account I was able to type out my birth plan into a template to have it there until I wanted to make changes or print it off. I have organized it so that the e-mail alerts only show topics or forum responses that I am interested in.

So far I have only had two issues with this site and they are nothing that I can't ignore. Now and again the site freezes a bit and thus I try to click back to try again and this sometimes enters a forum response more than once. There is an advert banner down the right-hand side of the screen that on occasion will cover part of a post and makes reading it a bit tricky.

On previous baby websites I had been on there had been a lot of "trolls". These are people who join the site only to give bad advice and/or say nasty things to other people. This had obviously been a big turn-off and I had left those sites. Since I joined Babyexpert there has only been one incident of a "troll" entering the forums and it was reported and dealt with rather quickly.

Quite amazing how useful one little site can be really. The site is hosted by Prima Baby & Pregnancy magazine. I got lots of information regarding pregnancy, birth and how to best involve to older child. There are a number of web chats held by the site the last of which covering how people physically and mentally might feel after childbirth and ways of coping.

Various other topics include:

Getting pregnant - Covers a rage of topics from trouble conceiving to getting pregnant after a miscarriage. Helpful as it gives information about healthy diets, older mums, and infertility testing.

Pregnancy - Has a baby-namer with hundreds of names and meanings. Information on antenatal checks, your working rights, multiple births and more.

Birth - Tells how to write a good birth plan, information on pain relief options, how to pack a hospital bag and the birth stories of other members.

Baby - Now that you've brought the baby home what do you do with it??? This section covers sleeping, crying, eating, health, injections and all the stuff you could possibly need to know about your little bundle. Although I would suggest knowing a little bit before baby shows up.

Toddler - Food, nutrition, development, behaviour and the dreaded potty training.

Your Life - Relationship advice, choosing childcare, and going back to work.

Ask Babyexpert - Is just that ... a place to ask questions. You will get a tailored response from people in the know. Anything from fertility to starting school.

The Baby Show (ticket information, discounts ...)
Introducing older siblings
Involving dad
Budget baby gear
Product reviews
Fashion & Beauty
Competitions

New topics show up every week and if you later want to see something you missed the search engine picks up anything that's ever been on the site. I have picked up advice on getting children to give up the dummy, tricks and tips to get toddlers to eat, post baby contraception, breastfeeding and how much sleep does a baby actually need. That last one was important as I constantly run after an older child and my second child was going to have to sleep around all that. Sounds silly but I feel closer to some of the ladies I've met through the forums then some people I have known for years.


(c) oioiyou 2009

Summary: Great all round site for parents of all ages!