WebMD, The iPhone And Using Both During Pregnancy

We’ll talk about the giveaway a bit more down the page. For now, I want to bring the discussion back around to my talk with Dr. Hansa Bhargava, the lead pediatrician for WebMD.

She and I conversed over the phone because she was promoting the new iPhone app from the online medical resource. It’s called WebMD Pregnancy and it’s an interesting experiment in just-in-time information management.

Bhargava said the app is a good thing to have for pregnant dudes and dudettes because, even if you don’t know what to ask or when to ask, the app gets personalized with your information and will start letting you know about developmental milestones, medical issues you should look out for and questions you need to ask when you go in for your next doctor visit.

“It has a lot of fun features as well as the pragmatic ones,” she said, adding that the app can be used to record things like fetal weight or size at various times in the pregnancy. “It’s also about how best to organize your life. There are checklists for many things, including what to pack for when you go to the hospital.

“What I really like as a physician is that it really helps the doctor-patient relationship in that it helps you organize your doctor’s visits. So, before you go in, you can actually take a list of questions that the app offers up. You can put down the answers and then share them with your partner.”

I’ve actually downloaded the app and been playing around with it. No, don’t worry, I’m not pregnant. Nor is my wife, known to me at this exact second as She Who Must Be Laughing Out Loud At The Mere Possibility Of That Being Mentioned. I just wanted to do a little due diligence before talking it up.

Dr. Bhargava’s right. It’s a tremendous little app. I’m quite jealous of the dudes and dudettes who get to download this free app onto their futurephones and use it to help them navigate what can be an appallingly stormy nine months.

My favorite parts of the app are the personal journal to record your thoughts and feelings as you go through pregnancy, the scheduler to keep track of appointments and places you gotta be (I think it was me who coined the phrase P.I.S. for pregnancy-induced senility because a certain someone couldn’t find her butt with two hands and a head start when she was pregnant.), and, best of all, the bump tracker. This little feature lets you take a picture each week so you can watch as the baby bump grows throughout the pregnancy. Yeah, this is the goods.

“You open up the app and it’s going to tell you information that’s relevant,” she said. “The personal journal allows you to put pictures in or record things, like what your cravings were, for example. When you felt the baby’s first kick, or something nice your partner did for you.”

So, yeah, dudes and dudettes, this is highly recommended from us here at A Dude’s Guide. . . to Everything! We like it. We like it a lot.

Now let’s talk swag. The fine folks at WebMD sent along some prime swaggins for you. There’s swaddling blankets:  SwaddleDesign Ultimate Receiving Blanket, a digital thermometer:  Vick’s Baby Rectal Thermometer, towel & washcloth:  Aden & Anais La Mer Towel & Washcloth, the most recent issue of the WebMD magazine, and more stuff from WebMD on pregnancy.

This, my friends, is a good deal. And, to win this lovely prize, all you have to do is send me an e-mail detailing — in 100 words or less — what you said when you first learned you were going to be a parent. On purpose. I’ll pick out a winner randomly and send along the goodies. You need to get the e-mail to me no later than midnight March 27. That gives you dudes a good week to get working.

You’ll also get a very special extra prize: You’ll receive a copy of A Dude’s Guide to Babies autographed personally by both Barry and me, Richard. How’s that for a great gift? Pretty darn amazing, I’m thinking. And that’s in addition to the great stuff from WebMD.

Get crackin’, dudes. Send me those e-mails. I’m waiting.

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