[Air-L] research on birth week groups?

[Katy Pearce]

(I originally sent my response directly to Ethan and danah, so here it is
for everyone.)

 

danah and Ethan,

 

I'm not familiar with any studies except for this one:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/w-cif012209.php , but I can
tell you that in my personal experience, LiveJournal is where a lot of this
is happening. I myself was in a birth week (and month - months appear to be
more common, FWIW) group and continue to be involved in it. We're now all
swapping teething remedies. There is particular kinship with "birthday
buddies." 

 

It was my experience that when one joins one of the open/common LJ groups
(like pregnancy, pregnant, or parenting101), it is expected that one shares
her name, age, due date and other details. Then a mod or a member of the
month group will private message or send a comment inviting the user to join
"November2008" or whatever. Also, it is expected that community members will
post their "birth story" within a few days of giving birth. After those are
posted, invites to "birthday week buddy" groups are send privately or via
comments. I see every few weeks a post in the general groups that says "Hey,
we just started a August2009 group!"

 

It is absolutely the case that these groups vary in demographics and
attitudes toward childrearing (although I'd venture a guess that these
groups skew more crunchy. Parenting101 is a very popular, albeit snarky,
group though that has its subcommunities of (self-proclaimed) boobnazis
(breast is best and if you don't agree, we hate you), co-sleepers,
anti-vaccination people, etc.)). The month groups are generally friendly and
more supportive and as Ethan speculates, more about developmental and
medical questions (i.e., how did your baby's 2-month vaccinations go? Or did
your OB give you this test?).  

 

Demographically, all these communities skew YOUNG. I, at 30, feel like the
oldest by far. Most seem to be in their late teens and early 20s. As such,
financial issues and custody/relationship/how parents react to the news
issues are a bit different than the ones that I discuss with my "real life"
parent friends. For example, I posted a question the other day about
opinions regarding a stroller accessory and was quickly flamed for owning a
stroller deemed too expensive. Then there was a flame war about how that
stroller, while expensive has a lifetime guarantee, was easily found on
Craig's List, etc. But there is definitely a lot of good feedback given to
the younger mothers when asking questions about budgeting, what is really
essential and the like. 

 

And yes, friendships emerge and appear to be very different from "real life"
friendships. Some of them are maintained through the community itself and
others occur through comments that move into be-friending on private
journals (i.e., "Looks like we both do cloth diapers and have boys. Friend
eachother?") 

 

I hope that this was helpful. If anyone is interested in discussing further
or offlist, I'd be happy to. And yes, I probably spend way too much time
there. I like to crowdsource my baby questions though. J

 

Thanks,

Katy  

 

Message: 4

Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:59:38 -0500

From: danah boyd <aoir.z3z at danah.org>

Subject: [Air-L] research on birth week groups?

To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org

Message-ID: <1694AFEA-E805-487C-8016-AC5B162487EB at danah.org>

Content-Type: text/plain;     charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed;    delsp=yes

 

A friend of mine is trying to find research on women who are part of "birth
week" groups.  I've heard a lot about these forming through  

Craigslist, but I don't know who is doing research in this space.   

Does anyone here know?  I've included his full query below.  --danah

 

Begin forwarded message:

 

> From: Ethan Zuckerman <ethanz at gmail.com>

> 

> In the past few (several?) years, online support groups have emerged 

> for women who share a pregnancy due date. Some of these clubs are 

> regional; others are nationwide or worldwide, usually constrained by 

> language. Women participate because it's helpful to compare their 

> experiences to women at the same stage of gestational development.

> 

> What's interesting to me about these groups is that they encourage 

> connect - sometimes deep emotional connection - between women who 

> don't share much in common in demograhic/psychograhic terms. These 

> groups are limited by gender, age and basic computer literacy, but 

> they appear to be - if only from anecdotes - more diverse than many 

> voluntary online associations.

> 

> I'm interested in whether anyone has done either a detailed 

> ethnographic or a quantitative, survey-based study of one or more of 

> these communities. I'm especially interested in observations on 

> support relationships developing between women who differ in terms of 

> income, race and religion.

> 

> -E