Pregnancy Resources

Aside from my wiser, already-parent friends, there were a few places I turned to often for information in my pregnancy. God knows I’ll remember about a 100 more in the coming weeks, so this will be an evergreen post, possibly it’s own page! If you’re reading this & have something you think would be helpful for all our Natalies to check out, comment away.

• The Birth Hour podcast: I was obsessed with listening to birth stories prior to my own labor experience. There’s a ton of birthing podcasts out there, but I appreciated the simple format of this one and the variety of birth stories shared by guests. Approximately .003 seconds after delivery, I couldn’t have cared less since I’d finally lived the real thing, so it’ll be interesting to see if I re-subscribe if this sucker ever gets a sibling.
• Nurse Zabe on YouTube: She’s just so damn likeable! Nurses are the real MVP of the whole hospital experience, and Nurse Zabe (pronounced zay-buh, like the middle of EliZABEth) has a ton of experience as a labor & delivery and postpartum nurse in the southern USA. She just announced her third pregnancy and is making videos in real time about that, plus she’s famous for her “what your nurses do & don’t want you to pack in your hospital bag” videos.
• Reddit. Yes, that Reddit. Even if you’ve never been on Reddit or think it’s the devil’s butthole of the Internet, there are private subreddits for expecting parents for each month of each year. It’s a community of thousands of people from around the world who are going through exactly what you’re going through at the same-ish time. Generally you search for yours towards the beginning of your pregnancy, then they go private around 20 weeks or so (each mod runs them differently.) For example, r/October2020Bumpers was my go-to for “Is this thing happening to you?” “How is pregnancy kicking your ass today?” and then they stay active after the babies are born and you have community from around the world when you’re posting “It’s 2 a.m. and I haven’t slept for weeks WHHHYYYYYY?!?!?” Warning: as people in your subreddit start giving birth, it will give you the false sense that you will also go into labor early. If you are, say, me, this will make you absolutely despondent that you’re still pregnant by week 39 and you should take a break from your beloved online community.