Finding Support Online

Hi everyone it’s Nikki Katz from San Diego again.  Still no answer on this months attempt to try and get pregnant but I should know soon, that darn two week wait. 

One thing that gets me through the waiting is the friendships that I’ve formed through online forums and message boards.  Even before I had my first child four years ago I was on a forum consisting of women trying to get pregnant.  I spent the first few months learning everything I could about trying to conceive.  They educated me on my cycle, on Luteal phases, on using Robitussin and on eating baby carrots prior to ovulation.  The women were great at answering questions and sharing their own personal stories.  Some of them had been trying for a couple of weeks where as others were looking into IVF.  The bond that we shared was one of excitement and anxiety and of waiting. 

When you’re trying to get pregnant it seems like all you do is wait.  You wait for your period to get over, you wait for ovulation, you wait for pregnancy symptoms, you wait for the time that you can test and if it’s negative you wait for your dreaded period to start again.  Nobody really gets it, your friends that aren’t trying to get pregnant probably won’t understand the ups and downs of testing and waiting.  Your partner may understand some of your fears and frustrations but he’s not anxiously taking his temperature every morning or waiting for ovulation. 

When you join an online forum you find plenty of women in the same life stage as you who will cry with you and share your joy with you when you finally get that second pink line.  If you are lucky you will stay friends with them throughout your pregnancy and beyond.  I’ve become extremely close to several women that I met 5 ½ years ago.  In fact we are all getting together this summer and we are all ecstatic to be meeting.  So where do you start?

There are several places.  I had a forum link to my pregnancy website its http://www.allinfoaboutpregnancy.com.  There aren’t very many people discussing solely trying to conceive.  If you visit http://www.delphiforums.com and search for TTC (trying to conceive) you will find a variety of forums that might fit your interest.  There is also http://www.parenthood.com, http://www.mothering.com and several others that contain message boards solely focused on trying to get pregnant.  You can even Google the phrase and find the place you are looking for. 

If you are not sure how to start when you first join you can feel free to lurk and read previous posts, this will give you an idea of the members, their viewpoints, their backgrounds, etc.  If you want to join in, post an introduction message about yourself and go from there.  The quicker you get involved the faster your support group will form. 

If you’ve never been on a forum you will notice that everyone uses acronyms because it’s an easy way to get out of typing commonly used phrases.  The most basic trying to conceive acronyms are TTC (trying to conceive), BD (baby dance) or DTD (doing the deed), AF (aunt flow), LP (Luteal phase), CD (cycle day), LMP (last menstrual period), DH (darling husband or dear husband).  I already know that you are on the computer since you are listening to this podcast so finish listening and then get out there and make yourself new friends.