So I'm a member of a pregnant community on LiveJournal, and lately I've seriously been considering just cancelling that particular community membership because the rampant stupids are really getting to me. Partially it's also because the community is very high volume too, and I really don't want to spend all that time reading LiveJournal, or reading LiveJournal that isn't even related to friends. It's also not got much redeeming value in the way of information (I'm on other, more specified pregnancy/birth communities that are lower in posting volume, and more specifically in line with what I want to do (natural/home/water birth), that also offer much better advice).

I'm not sure if pregnancy is making me (more of) a cranky bitch, or if it's just my natural low tolerance for stupidity and my sunny disposition shining through, but I want to bash my head into the desk at least once a day when reading stuff on that community (and sometimes another parenting one).

What is wrong with people that they will ask very simple questions that could have had answers in under 2 minutes by using Google, or going to any one of the major free pregnancy sites on the web (WebMD, babycenter, whatever)? Now, that's not so bad, though I prefer to do my own research, and use stuff like LJ as a way of getting people's personal opinions or further pointers to more info instead of just using a bunch of other random people as my main source of information. This one really shouldn't surprise me though, as this happens over and over on the GN forums, and IRC.

Much worse is when people ask questions about stuff that concerns potentially dangerous/serious/severe situations or complications. Why are you asking a bunch of other preggos on LiveJournal? Why the fuck aren't you on the phone to your caregiver/nurse's hotline/hospital's ER? What the hell is wrong with you?!

Case in point:

Today I saw a post on a pregnant community where some woman who's 5-6 weeks pregnant went to an "orthopedic" (I'm guessing orthopedic surgeon or something). She told him she was pregnant, and he said it was fine and shot her up with lidocaine and cortisone steroids. Now she's worried about whether or not what he did is safe. Who does she call? her lawyer, who is the reason she's seeing this orthopedic (my guess is that it might be relational to a car accident or something, but it wasn't specified).

Why the fuck are you calling your lawyer? what the hell does he know about medications? or medications and pregnancy interactions? Why the hell aren't you calling your damn OBSTETRICIAN? And why are you asking people on LJ what to do? Am I the only person for whom the logical course of action is to FIRST call your pregnancy caregiver if you're seriously worried, not ask some random strangers online?

Augh!

And this happens on a fairly regular basis too, that's the frustrating part.

Paranoid people posting the same question 3 times in one week, when one look at a pregnancy site would have told her that it is normal to feel some cramping/aching sensations in your first trimester, because your body is releasing hormones that relax the muscles, and your uterus and ligaments are stretching... you know, to accommodate that baby that's growing inside of you. She was given this answer by numerous people too, but still asked over and over again. If the answer you're getting from people on the community don't satisfy you, maybe you should, you know, call your caregiver or something rational.

Or the "I have really severe cramps, and there's some spotting/bleeding... is this bad? what should I do?" well, bleeding is never really a good sign, and you should CALL YOUR CAREGIVER!

In the time it takes you to type up a fucking LiveJournal post, and receive a bunch of responses to it, you could have easily called your caregiver/hospital (or dozen) and gotten a professional response back that might have eased your worries or given you a direct course of action.

What scares me more is that these people are going to be parents soon. $deity help us.

I have the luxury of typing this from the position of not having had anything serious or distressing come up or happen (yet), but I do also have my midwife's cell phone number (and regular number, and email addresses...), and I'm definitely not afraid to use it, at any time of the day or night. As was our agreement when we first met her. Partially this is also why I prefer a midwife to an OB, I get more personalised contact, that's availible 24/7.

I've also made it a point to educate myself properly about all the possible things that I might come across, so that when something aches a bit, I'm not going to get all paranoid. This is also one of the main reasons that most of the other communities I'm on recommend against the book "What to expect when you're expecting", because it's alarmist, and will make you worry needlessly over every little natural thing. It's bad enough being pregnant, because you do have a natural propensity to worry about stuff, but you don't need a book aiding your sense of paranoia or fostering something like hypochondria or Munchausen's or something of that ilk.