3 New Year’s resolutions for Your Pregnancy Matters

A little over a year ago, I introduced myself and the Your Pregnancy Matters blog on this site. Our goal for the blog was – and still is – to provide a reliable, interesting source of information on a variety of pregnancy-related topics. Since December 2014, we have published 56 blogs about topics ranging from gender reveal parties to preeclampsia.

In January 2015, we published New Year’s resolutions for pregnant women. This year, we want to share our New Year’s resolutions with you, highlight the topics we’ve covered in the past year, and invite you to share your questions and blog ideas for 2016.

A look back at Your Pregnancy Matters in 2015

We want to make sure you know everything you need to during your pregnancy journey. Over the past year, 13 authors with expertise in maternal-fetal medicine, cardiology, fertility, psychiatry, neurology, and midwifery have been a part of Your Pregnancy Matters blogs.

We also know you don’t necessarily need a medical degree to give good advice. That’s why we were honored to have 12 patients tell their stories on our blog, such as Lindsey Duke, who lost a baby during pregnancy, and Elaine Jacobsen, who struggled with and overcame postpartum depression.

We’ve been overwhelmed with the reception Your Pregnancy Matters has received! More than 54,000 users have visited the blog, spending the equivalent of 25.5 days viewing the stories. Overall, Your Pregnancy Matters stories received more than 86,000 pageviews. Additionally, 500 people have subscribed to receive email alerts when a new blog publishes.

Which stories resonated most with our readers? Here are the top five most-read stories of 2015:

• “Zofran for morning sickness: The risks are minimal”: 15,109 pageviews
• “How far along am I in my pregnancy?”: 12,472 pageviews
• “Feeling your baby move during pregnancy”: 6,584 pageviews
• “Tyler’s legacy: Couple finds way to honor son’s short life”: 4,022
• “Beyond the delivery room: 3 doctors become mothers”: 3,672 pageviews

What’s next for Your Pregnancy Matters in 2016?

We’re thrilled that so many of you have read and continue to read Your Pregnancy Matters. But don’t think that we’re content with the status quo.

Here are our three Your Pregnancy Matters New Year’s resolutions:

• Include more multimedia: Sometimes, no matter how well we describe something, text can’t rival a good photo, infographic, audio clip, or video. We want to make sure you understand what’s going on with your pregnancy, and we’ll give you that information in the most relevant media possible. In fact, next week we’ll show you a video of an 18-week sonogram, walk you through a baby’s anatomy, and show you what we’re looking for at that point in the pregnancy.
• Improve interaction with our readers: We don’t want to just talk at you, we want to talk with you. We want this to be a conversation. What did you think about the blog? If you or a loved one had a similar experience, what did you do or learn? Do you have questions we didn’t answer about a topic? Connect with us through the blog comments section, on Facebook, on Twitter using the hashtag #yourpregnancydfw, or through email at yourpregnancymatters@utsouthwestern.edu.

We have hosted two social media live chats – one about pregnancy during the holidays and another about breastfeeding – and we were impressed with the thoughtful questions you asked during both. We also became one of the first five hospitals to use Periscope – a livestreaming video app – for the breastfeeding chat.

We’d like to expand our media use to allow you to not just read our words, but also to see and hear us. As technology evolves, we resolve to evolve, as well, and meet you in the digital spaces where you hang out.

• Find out what you want to know: This blog is all about you. We want to write about the things you want to learn about. Sometimes we pick topics because patients are asking about them, such as which prenatal vitamins you should take. Sometimes it’s because they are in the news, such as avoiding listeria while you’re pregnant. Other times, we have an opinion about something, such as whether you should eat your placenta.

But you tell us: What pregnancy question has been bugging you, and which subjects do you want to know more about? Tell us through blog comments, social media, or by email. Or you can let us know when you have an appointment. We’re listening!

Thank you for making the Your Pregnancy Matters blog so successful. We look forward to continuing to help you have the healthiest pregnancy possible. Here’s to a 2016 that is full of good information, lively discussion, and healthy mothers and babies!

The Your Pregnancy Matters blog publishes new stories about pregnancy, labor, and delivery every Tuesday. Sign up to receive an email notification when we publish new stories.