Pregnancy forums.

I joined a pregnancy forum.  When we were surprised with the news we were expecting, I made a mental note to not become “one of those mothers.”  You know the type, the kind that talk about their baby all the time, and maybe even blog ridiculous amounts on the subject (oh I so totally did)?  I didn’t want to join other mothers in talking about strollers, car seats, mucous plugs and waters breaking. I have loads of interesting thoughts to share on the subjects of science, university courses, video games I’ve played and books I’ve read.  But inevitably, I did become a baby obsessed whackjob (as you may have noticed in reading my blog).  Recently, I joined a forum for the exact purpose of discussing such subjects as the mucous plug (ew) and I feel almost alien in doing so.

The reason being the content of the posts being made.

I fail to grasp why people would come onto a forum board and ask a serious medical question.  Day after day, posts are made with subject lines like “Is bleeding normal?!?!?!” and “should I go to the hospital?”  The body of the post will contain maybe two or three sentences on what that person is experiencing, which sounds very serious (I don’t know, I am not a doctor).  I fail to see where the logic in this is.  Why would you (the proverbial you) come onto a forum board, on the INTERNET, type out a post involving whatever potentially dangerous and serious situation you’re in, and sit around while waiting for a response… again, a response from people on the INTERNET.

It completely blows my mind.

In the two “omg what if” situations I’ve had in my otherwise routine pregnancy, I called the appropriate medical experts.  Key word being experts.  You know the type, the people who went through years of schooling and training before landing a career in getting paid to tell you if what you are experiencing in your pregnancy is normal.  It would never cross my mind to take time out of what could be a dire situation to make a post on a forum board.

I understand people on the net come from all walks of life and past experiences, but would it kill to exercise a little common sense?