Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The March of Dimes has a new image and a spanking new Web site to go with it: www.marchofdimesbaby.org. But the new home page's most useful feature may be its link to the group's original Internet address, www.marchofdimes.com, maybe the best pregnancy site you're not using.

Formed in 1938 to help polio victims and raise money for research, the March of Dimes took on preterm birth and birth defects after a vaccine largely eradicated polio.

Now the focus of the nonprofit organization, which is based in White Plains, N.Y., has grown again, to include all things infant.

"We realized that the work we've done over the years can benefit all babies, not just babies with special health needs," said the group's president, Jennifer Howse.

The new site's home page is a fine-print blur of questions, including "Can I have feta cheese in my salad" while I'm pregnant and "Can I use an old crib?"

(The answers are no and no -- because feta can harbor listeria bacteria, which can be harmful to a fetus; and because older cribs may have slats wide enough to trap and suffocate babies.)

To view the same questions in more legible type, go instead to the original home page and click on "pregnancy & newborn"; then click on questions and answers on the left side.

Questions and answers are vetted by in-house medical staff -- not always the case with other pregnancy sites.

The site also accepts e-mail questions in English and Spanish, but the reply time is three to five business days, so emergency questions like "Is spotting during pregnancy serious?" should go directly to your doctor.

A notable new feature is a series of daily tips that can be instant-messaged or texted to your cellphone.

Some tips are banal (remember to take your question list with you when you see your obstetrician); others are newsier.

A recent tip advised pregnant women to limit caffeine to no more than 200 milligrams a day -- down 100 from previous recommendations -- after a study published one day earlier showed that caffeine increases the risk of miscarriage.

-- Francesca Lunzer Kritz