There are a billion and one websites out there for the newly pregnant woman, how to choose? Some are fantastic but most are littered with advertising. While it’s almost impossible to find a website with advertising, the following are some of my favourite’s for different reasons–and yes they all have advertising, some is a little more annoying then other’s but I digress.

1) BabyCenter.com

Why I like it: Baby Center has different “center’s” for different countries all over the world. The American version has by far the most features and most in depth articles. It also has different features like polls and quizzes along with a “baby center store” that you can purchase things for your baby–Only available to US residents)

I like the weekly emails you can get about your newly growing babe inside you! It tells you (and shows you) your baby is the size of a “lemon” this week and these vital organs are growing! I loved getting these email every week! These are available from the Canadian Site of Baby Center but they are not as in depth as the American ones. They have great message boards but I found they were too quick for me to keep up with. While I was still working during my pregnancy (yes–it’s true most pregnant women go online to scour the Internet for stuff about their babies–and completely zone out of some of their at work responsibilities) I found it hard to keep up with all of the gossip and news and tips from over 600 active (and who knows how many inactive) poster’s. Which leads me to why I like the next site!

2) BabyCenter.ca

Why I like it: Well it is Canadian. The only problem with this site is that it get’s most of it’s articles from the UK site–including stats on health issues. So some of the lingo is heavily English (UK). So in North America Pants are things like jeans, slacks etc. and in the UK they’re underwear. Diaper’s are Nappies and other little subtleties. They offer the weekly emails about your growing baby–but I found them a little less informative then the American site.

One bonus the Canadian site offers over the US site is that when you log onto their site the first page is the page that tells you how far along you are. The US site used to do that but now comes up with advertisements for their store and a whole whack of other things like articles, polls, quizzes. It is just too busy for me.

The best thing about the Canadian site is their message boards! I found so much support by joining my “birth club” for all mommies expecting the same month as me.  While you all have the same questions, you may not all know all the right answers. The thing that made our month so successful was that there was no such thing as TMI (too much information), and we were able to know that if someone felt it, most of us were going through it!

3) FitPregnancy.com

Why I like it: While I wasn’t the most fit person before my pregnancy, your eating habits most likely change and I became more health conscious during my pregnancy. This site has amazing links to really neat articles as well as more tips for each stage of the game! Check it out for safe work out’s while you’re pregnant. It also has exercises that help tone all those important muscles for labour and after baby is born! They also have a section on baby week by week and how your body is changing in those 40 weeks!

4) BabyZone.com

Why I like it: Ok this is by far the most “tabloid” website. It has the most “quizzes” and has some numerology to find out what your child’s name might mean in terms of personality. What I liked about it was that it was fun! It also had a daily calendar that you could look up what stage you were at and it would have suggestions as to what to be interested in! It also gives you a time frame for when you should look into prenatal care, and informs you about perineal massage—I don’t think they should have dubbed it a massage.

You can also look up your baby names that you have picked out to see what they mean and save them to a list!

Now that I’ve had my little one it has a very neat milestone tracker that you can track your child’s development over the months to see if he/she is hitting milestone goals! But other then that it has fun things like “is it a boy or girl” old wives tales are they true? Find out by clicking here to test it out!

5)MayoClinic.com

Pregnancy is a hard enough time as it is, with all the things that you are forced to worry about it’s nice to have an “official” source to see what’s safe and what’s not. If you’ve heard that Red Raspberry leaf is safe, is it? Check out the site if you have any questions about natural remedies or herbs that you need scientific backing for. They also have a Pregnancy Center for all things Pregnancy related. Click here to check it out!

The bottom line

A close call for my top 5 was this site as a fun site. From Justmommies.com comes a Labour Prediction Quiz! This is a purely “fun” quiz designed to predict how long your labour would be, how early, and the weight of your babe! While it was grossly off for me for the length of my labour and when I would go into labour, the size was about right! One out of three isn’t bad right?  I guess they didn’t want to scare me with a 23 hour labour!

I found these sites fantastic as a resource and still do now that I’m a mom! I’m still friends with many of the women I got to know online through the message boards, and with the invention of Facebook we’ve all grown quite close even though we live all over the country. My pregnancy would not have been the same without these ladies and their wonderful knowledge has made me a well informed person that is not in the dark. Often when you are pregnant you are going through so many emotional things as well as crazy bodily functions that it helps just knowing people understand what you are going through.

Your support group does not have to be online however, but make sure that you have an outlet. Pregnancy while amazing is a hard time. Find some people or someone that you trust and get out all of your pent up emotions. No one expects you to be perfect, and some times you can have some pretty conflicting and confusing feelings. Just know you are NOT ever alone in these!