Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A big reveal...

Last summer a few of us got together and brainstormed. We’re young – in our late- 20s and early-30s and have been seeing the list of family and friends getting pregnant growing steadily. Some of us are stepmothers. Others want to have a baby soon. We’re pretty Internet savvy and turn online to research any new experience or health issue. But it can be hard to decipher where to look or what sources to trust. So, we wondered, why not create a local resource that pulls together trusted health information and a sense of community through social media?

The stats on how many women like us turn online for information when they are looking to get pregnant, the pregnancy test turns positive or their child presents a new challenge is staggering. Ninety four percent of moms online say pregnancy triggered them to seek health information on the web and connect with others in similar situations, according to the Babycenter 2010 Social Mom Influencer Report. We’re no different.

And so we started with the Texas Health Moms blog, Facebook page and Twitter account in mid-August. And we truly appreciate each and every fan, like, retweet and comment we’ve gotten in the past four months or so. But behind the scenes we’ve been working on something even bigger.


Today we are proud to announce the creation of  www.TexasHealth.org/Moms. We built the site to serve as a one-stop resource for Moms. The Texas Health Moms site includes health information from Texas Health Resources employees and the physicians on the medical staff at our hospitals. It also offers outside resources such as a health encyclopedia and content on the journey of pregnancy. You can register for classes and request materials, such as healthy pregnancy or healthy eating kit for free. But the site doesn’t stop there. Articles, videos, and Q&A are available to talk about how to avoid sports injuries and maintain healthy lifestyles for children of all ages. And perhaps most exciting is that there are interactive forums so that you can talk to other moms here in North Texas and elsewhere. After all who better to offer tips and advice than other moms in the trenches who have firsthand knowledge?

I don’t know about you, but we really identified with the “Mom Moment” scene in Sex and the City 2 (no worries we’re not giving away any spoilers if you’ve yet to see it) when Miranda and Charlotte confess all the things they feel like they can never say about motherhood over a couple of martinis. Who hasn’t felt the need to uncork those feelings (and a bottle of wine) with a girlfriend? We can’t provide the drinks, but we can offer the forum to share that info. After all, when women start sharing the realities of their life it usually helps not only them, but other women nearby.

Please take a look at the Texas Health Moms website. We really do want and welcome your feedback. After all the website and all the social media offerings are really about building a community of women to help each other.What do you think of our new addition?

Jennifer Erickson
Sr. PR Specialist

3 comments:

  1. This is fantastic! The site looks great and I know it will be SO helpful as I navigate new(ish) Stepmom duties and new Mom duties (while technically still a newlywed - less than 5 years is still newlywed, right?). Thank you so much for this!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much for your comment, Julie! I'm glad you like it :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great site. I particularly appreciate the inclusion of infertility information. That really makes in an all-inclusive site!

    ReplyDelete