Thursday, November 20, 2008

Tell Me What's On Your Mind

I just wanted to take a minute to take the pulse of my readers.

What would you most like to see me address in my blog? What are you most interested in?


Do you want me to blog about pregnancy and birth in women of size? Do you want to see less pregnancy stuff and more general fat-acceptance stuff? Or do you want me to blog about pregnancy and birth in general (not necessarily about women of size)? Do you want me to discuss parenting issues? Parenting as a fat person? Medical stuff that might affect fat folk? Birth politics in this country and around the world?

I don't have a good sense yet who is reading my blog. I'm guessing most of my readership is from the fatosphere because of the fatosphere feed, but I wonder how many birth activists/professionals may be reading it too. And of the FA folks that are reading this, how many are moms already? How many aren't but are reading about it for future use? How many read it despite not being particularly interested in birth and children-related issues? Do folks pass it over because they think it will ONLY be about birth-related stuff? Do I need to add more general interest stuff for the general fatosphere reader, or should I keep to mostly birth and parenting-related stuff?

Tell me about what you want to read about. I can't promise to address each and every topic suggested, and I do have to point out that I'm very busy with four kids and all our activities (there's LOTS!), so it could take a while for me to actually write something addressing a specific request, but I'd like some direction in how folks would like my blog to go. I promise to listen.

You can post comments directly to the blog, or if you'd rather request something more privately, you can email me at kmom "at" plus-size-pregnancy dot org. I can't promise to reply personally or in a real timely manner if I do reply, but I do read it all, always. And it really helps me keep a finger on the pulse of what is most urgently needed.

So speak up. Let me know what you are most interested in seeing and why. I may not get to everything (or it may take me a while to get back to it), but I'd really like to hear your thoughts.

What plans I do have:

I have plans to follow up with more specifics on weight gain in women of size in pregnancy, on preventing complications and being proactive in pregnancy in women of size, and general information about pregnancy (and adoption) for women of size. I have several ruminations about parenting and marriage and stuff brewing but they need to ferment a little more before I commit them to the internet.

I also like to comment on media-related stuff.......famous people of size, fat folks who have contributed positively to our world, the image of fat folk in movies and TV, that kind of thing. And then there's the really frivolous stuff----pop culture, my favorite movies, pet peeves, cute kid stories, my animals, etc. I could go on and on about those!

So that's what's on MY mind for this blog, but I want to know how best to prioritize it, what my readers most need and want to see, and whether there are any burning issues that I'm overlooking that really need to be addressed.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am interested in reading about pregnancy, birth and parenting - in general. I am a woman of size, so I appreciate when that is specifically addressed, but I think this blog can be helpful for women of all sizes. I am not yet a mother, but my husband and I plan to start trying in the next year.

Lexi said...

I'm more from the birth activist sphere, though I am fat... I love the posts about pregnancy and birth as a large woman, but I would also love to see some general parenting as a fat woman stuff. My kids are both skinny as rails... course, I was too at their age... and it seems like people always want to assume that I don't feed them... maybe so there is more for me, I don't know. I'd love to know how other moms deal with feeding their kids in public, among other day-to-day bits of being a fat mom.
Thanks! And I love reading your blog!!

Anonymous said...

Even though I generally don't comment because I don't know squat about pregnancy, I think it's great that you're doing this, and I'm always fascinated to read your posts. "Should" you write about other things besides pregnancy? If you want to, sure. But I don't think you should force yourself to if your heart's not in it.

Anonymous said...

I came here via the fatosphere feed, but as a "tweenie" I generally only read Shapely Prose regularly, unless something specific grabs my attention in the feed - the drawcard of your blog is the birth and pregnancy material, since I'm about to study midwifery. I'm always keen to read more on birth and pregnancy in general, but the intersection of weight issues and birth issues is really interesting to me, and this is the only place I've found much.

Lisa @ Lisa Moves said...

I came to your blog from following your comments on the ICAN list. You always give good advice and kind words there, and I've enjoyed reading your blog, whatever the topic. I read 8 gazillion blogs (thanks Google Reader!), but they generally fall into birth issues and parenting. The fat acceptance stuff is broadening my horizons, so to speak. Keep up the good work. :-)

Anonymous said...

Well, what's been on my mind lately is finding private health insurance for fat people. My family has been on COBRA since a layoff last year, because we couldn't get insurance once I was pregnant. Baby is due in a few weeks, and when she's 6 weeks old we can start looking for something different. But I'm really worried about the coverage we'll be offered with 2 adults who are overweight. Before we knew pregnancy disqualified our entire family from getting any private insurance at all, the quotes we were given were ridiculously high, because of my and my husband's weight. Insane, I tell you, even when neither of us had any weight related health issues.

Anonymous said...

When I saw "Weight Loss Surgery Helps Obese Women Have Healthier Babies", I thought of you. I hope that's good. :)

Anonymous said...

Well, right now I'm trying to get pregnant so I read you blog for pregnancy information especially in regards to fat women.

But I do like when you discuss other issues-I especially like when you do more autobiographical writings-for example when you talked about maternity clothing.

I guess right now I am just hungry for details about pregnancy and what it is like and looks like for larger women. I would love to see more pictures of big beautiful pregnant bodies.

Anonymous said...

I really like seeing the pregnancy and birth stuff for women of size; there are plenty of people doing plain FA. For my personal use, the parenting stuff is the most useful; I'm done with pregnancy after three. My girl has moderate/severe ADHD; I don't know if you have any info on the intersection of female/ADHD, but that would be interesting to me.

Anonymous said...

I am most interested in health, pregnancy, birth, and parenting related topics concerning fat people. I'd read whatever you wrote, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of sensible, sane articles on those topics... specifically the pregnancy/birth/parenting area. I'm currently pregnant and get those daily email pregnancy updates, and completely can't relate with most of them. OH NO NOT FAT ANKLES! I've only had those since I was twelve. OH NO LIMIT YOUR WEIGHT GAIN! Uh... I haven't gained any weight at all and I'm 24 weeks. OH NO YOU WILL DEVOUR ENTIRE GALLONS OF ICE CREAM IF YOU DON'T LIMIT YOUR CALORIC INTAKE. ha ha, what? OMG STRETCH MARKS! again... since I was twelve. There's other stuff I dont' relate to as well (really, I'm not worried about getting a manicure. I've never actually had one, let alone schedule one for every week. Nor do I have plans to travel to Europe on a "baby moon" or start seeing a masseuse. Or spend $500 on a pair of jeans.) that's not fat specific, of course, but I'd really like more fat parent support and resources.

Anonymous said...

I agree with some of the other commenters--I love the material about fat (and not-fat) pregnancy, birth, and women's health. Just my 2 cents. I'm not a mom yet, but I hope to be within the next few years, so this is a great resource for me (apart from the fact that I just enjoy reading about those topics).

Anonymous said...

I'm interesting in hearing more about parenting as a fat mom. How do you instill healthy habits and self-acceptance in your kids? Very interested in the comments from Lexi about how people think we do or don't feed our kids. I had one person tell me I was setting my daughter up to look to food for comfort because I nursed on demand through the night after "they" say that babies should be able to sleep through the night. Opened my eyes to the warped views out there that collect around fat moms. : (

Andy said...

@ living400lbs - Me too!

I really hope you address this in an upcoming post. I was too angry to think straight after reading the article.

Anonymous said...

i love your thoughts on birth and size. i would love to hear more about parenting:)

Anonymous said...

OMG, living400lbs, that article from NYT is *appalling*.

Well-Rounded Mama, please, please continue to blog about both weight and pregnancy, as this is an area where doctors seem to be focusing extra effort into fear-mongering about obesity. Pregnancy is difficult and scary enough without all the "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE" rhetoric attached to it.

Being pregnant for the first time (6 1/2 months along, now), I came to the Plus-Sized Pregnancy webpage through a book called "Big, Beautiful and Pregnant" which made me feel a lot better about even trying to get pregnant than most other books out there. I was delighted to be able to find this blog, as well.

Anonymous said...

I love your blog too, Kmom! I don't get a chance to comment as often as I'd like, but I try and keep up. Right now I'm most interested in how to "do" HAES-- I mean, I know the rationale and the approach, and I agree-- so why is it so darn hard on a daily basis? I struggle to take good care of myself, and as a result, these days I generally list "JDFG" as my primary symptom of day-to-day living: "just don't feel good." I don't have and can't seem to locate a size-friendly medpro, I'm frustrated and paranoid about things like insulin resistance and hypothyroidism, but no one in the medical field wants to listen to me. I want to start planning another pg and I'm kind of at sea with the whole mess! So... not that I expect you to fish me out or anything... ;) But those are some issues I'd love to see some hints on.

Thank you for ALL you do, Kmom! Love you lots!

Anonymous said...

I don't know what you should write about but I appreciate that your blog is here! I hate hearing about all the dangers of fat pregnancy and birth. Yes, I'm just one person but I'm fat ("obese") and had two perfectly healthy pregnancies and deliveries. My son came so fast we didn't even make it out of the house. So much for problem delivery. And I gained the same amount (40 lb) with each child but the first one was 7 lb 13 oz and the second (the really fast, easy delivery!) was 10 lb 9 oz. Both perfectly healthy kids by the way (and no, I didn't have gestational diabetes - the boy just takes after my side of the family).

I'm done popping out babies ;-) so I admit that I'm not your target audience. But it's cool you're here.

You know what I personally am more interested in? Raising kids in a fat phobic world. My kids are right now not skinny or fat but given their parents and grandparents (and 3/4 of the people biologically related to them) it's only a matter of time before they are something other than "perfect". I want them to grow up loving their bodies no matter what they look like and not falling into the "I'll love my body when I've lost X pounds/gotten a tan/lightend my skin/had my nose fixed/removed that mole/tamed my hair". Whatever.

Ok, enough ranting for the day.

Lisa H. said...

I vote for birth info, birth politics, and birth research, but I'll probably read anything you write. ;)

Lisa H.

Anonymous said...

We're running into a new problem now--a son who is a picky eater, who tells us (2 fat parents) that he's afraid to eat because he doesn't want to get fat. Of course, he has no problem eating treats, it's the veggies and protein he doesn't want to eat, so we're trying to talk about how eating healthy food doesn't make you fat and eating too many treats can make you gain weight. I lost my father to pancreatic cancer and somehow ds got it in his head that the cancer was caused by eating too much as well. So I agree with other commenters that parenting issues are something we could use help with.

Anonymous said...

While if you wrote about FA generally I would likely still read I am largely interested in FA + pregnancy/parenting and that is why I visit here.