New Mother Madness – What Makes an Expert?
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010No, this post will not focus on postpartum mood disorders. I am referring to a yet to be named phenomenon that contemporary women face during the transition to motherhood. The flood of information – websites, blogs, magazines, books and other traditional media – brings my own self-described information-seeking mind to the brink of overload. New and aspiring mothers can turn to hundreds of sources, then toss around their findings with their friends or on their own blogs. After all the filtering, what is the information that is not just someone’s take on these topics, but research and experience driven “facts”? If one has authored a book, is that the criteria for “expert”? In the 1960′s, women absorbed their copy of Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, trusted their pediatricians and filtered advice from family and friends. While the choices were miniscule in comparison to our information universe, was this a less neurotic grasp at “getting it right”? One Smart Mother loves Lisa Belkin’s Motherlode. Ms. Belkin can turn out important information in a smart and friendly format and her bio speaks for itself. Thank you to Lisa Belkin for being a trustworthy guide in this sea of quasi-educated opinionated information.
