Need to look up some information quickly? Need some quick facts on maternal and infant health for your state, your city? The way to go is Peristats, a free service at March of Dimes.

Periststs consists of an extensive database and a user-friendly graphics tool. With Peristats, you not only get current information on maternal and health indicators, you can also create cool graphics, tables, charts, and maps. These look good not only on presentation slides and reports but on your blogs as well.

Here are some the health indicators you can get at Peristats:

• Birth rates
• Preterm birth rates
• Low birth weights
• Birth defects
• Newborn screening
• Prenatal care, timing and adequacy
• Infant mortality rates
• Multiple deliveries, which can be split to twin deliveries, and triplet or higher deliveries
• Delivery methods
• Smoking/Alcohol/Drug Use during pregnancy
• Insurance coverage

Most of the data available can be further broken down according to maternal age and race or ethnicity. Peristats uses only data from government agencies such the US National Center for Health Statistics and the US Census Bureau so the data is as reliable as it could get.

The graphs and charts that you create with Peristats can be copied, printed or sent by email.

Indeed, Peristats is a useful tool for the blogger parents like you and me.

When I was pregnant I sifted through all the different baby sites.  It soon became apparent to me that while some of the blogs presented straight-forward information there were also other blogs that tried to keep readers engaged in the website by delivering horrific stories about terrible labor experiences and worse situations.  I specifically remember reading one blog that told the story of a woman who was in labor with her first baby who’s husband drove her out to a log cabin and left her there to have the baby.  It was at that point that I decided I didn’t need to read any more stories on baby sites that were designed to freak pregnant women out.

This is one of the reasons why I have always really liked Babies Online.  The information presented within the blogs is always informative, never alarmist and oftentimes entertaining.  By the way, I’m not just saying that because I happen to write for this blog, but because I personally enjoy reading all the posts and have other friends who also read the blogs on Babies Online and really like what they see.

Guess what? I’m not the only one who has noticed that Babies Online is one of the best blogs around.  Babies Online was voted one of the best blogs for expectant parents by the Ultrasound Technician Schools website. Babies Online’s blog is in the top five of the list, and if you ask me, it’s rightfully so.

When it comes to pregnancy and parenting, sometimes it can be hard to find accurate information that isn’t overwhelming or designed to scare the heck out of you.  Sift through the blogs here on Babies Online and you’ll find great information that won’t keep you up at night worrying that something may go wrong.

Regular readers already know this, but I have a three year old daughter, and my wife is pregnant with our second child, due in the beginning of October. Our daughter was delivered via cesarean section after 20 hours of labour and as of right now it appears that our second will be delivered via a scheduled c-section.

While my daughter is just three years old, she is rather precocious. So, the expected questions about how the baby got into my wife’s uterus (or “tummy”) and how it will subsequently come out have a more thorough treatment than one would expect from a three year old. So far, we have treated the subject with a bit of distance: offering vague answers and changing the subject instead of allowing for the typical preschooler probing (also known as “the neverending whys”) to proceed.

However, as the delivery date approaches, and the reality that my wife is likely to have another c-section, we have begun to wonder just how much detail we should provide to our little girl. On the one hand, the age-old advice of “answer only the questions asked” works, but in our case, it won’t explain why she won’t be able to lie on her mother’s stomach during story time, or why my wife won’t be able to lift her for several weeks (possibly months, depending on her recovery). So we are debating just how much information to share with our daughter.

We picked up a book at the local bookstore, but parts of it seem overly detailed, at least for someone of her age. Also, at least for me, handling it with a book feels somewhat disconnected or sterile. I feel like we should be talking about it, not learning about it during a story.

This is directed at people who already have one child, and have had, or are expecting, their second: what have you done in this situation? How much information did you give your child? Did you feel like you were sharing “too much” for their age?

You can read more SciFi Dad at Tales From The Dad Side.

Are you an internet savvy mom?

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If so, be sure to check out Babies Online’s all new Baby & Pregnancy Search Toolbar plugin and get relevant results every time you search!

Oh, and super double triple bonus: It’s free!