Baby Shower Tradition Rebirthing Online

by Anonymous

Sandy, OR May 25, 2004 -- The squeals of delight over tiny new baby clothes, guessing the girth of a very pregnant belly, an Internet message board -- what do they all have in common? It's a baby shower! Americans love showering new parents with gifts but what do you do when the expecting mother is far from family and friends or restricted to bed rest? Enter the online baby shower solution.

"In the fall of 2000, my best friend from college was expecting her first baby, " says Bonnie Walker, Founder of Web Baby Shower (www.webbabyshower.com). "Even though we don't live in the same dorm anymore, we are still very close friends and I was disappointed at the idea of not being able to throw a shower for her. As a web developer, I knew I could use the Internet to overcome our geographical distance, but at the same time was unable to find something where the great-grandparents from Colombia could add a message and see pictures without having to have an email or web account of their own. So I put together a private message board on my own website, got some photos from my friend and added links to her online registries and, voila, the first Web Baby Shower was born."

Several baby shower and home entertaining websites have stepped forward to make having a baby shower online easy. Features include message boards, photos, online baby registry links, invitation services and even online baby shower games. Additional features, which vary by each service, include live chat and keepsake printouts of the messages left on the message board. Web Baby Shower, Walker's site, is one of the least expensive while at the same time offers what you need to host a baby shower online. Web Baby Shower is still personally moderated by Walker to help ensure a safe online experience but keep the site easy for everyone to use.

In addition to families separated by geography, many have been using online baby showers to help cheer and encourage expecting mothers who have been restricted to bed rest. There are a growing number of women's and pregnancy sites where women on bed rest can connect with one another and an online baby shower gives her family and friends a chance to let her know she is supported. "It's becoming popular for online women's communities to come to a site like Web Baby Shower to have a baby shower for a member," says Walker. "It's just about impossible for these groups who are tight knit online but scattered across the world to have a party so an online baby shower is the perfect solution for a group of women who are already used to meeting online. It also keeps their community message board from getting too cluttered and allows a little more privacy than a regular community message board, which is important when you want to link to shopping registries and post photos."

Of course, having a baby shower online will never be the same as a having party, but it does have its own advantages. "We're all too busy these days, so even if an expecting mother lives across the street from her family, often times people who are having a baby shower party will also have an online shower so that everyone who can't make it to the party can still participate. It's a great way to share information about baby registries and the types of things the new parents need before a party. Web Baby Shower is very flexible and allows users to link to just about any legitimate online store or registry service. Everyone also loves photos of the expecting parents -- we've seen some great belly shots and of course photos of the newborn can go online as soon as someone has the chance to take one," says Walker. Most online baby shower services run until about four weeks after the mother's expected due date and Web Baby Shower offers the extra option of transforming the online shower into an online birth announcement. Walker adds, "Everyone's been coming to the site to wish the expecting mom an easy delivery, so it's a no-brainer to turn the site into a birth announcement where everyone can come back again and welcome the new baby." Much like the online women's communities, new parents find that the online birth announcement helps keep their email in boxes from getting overfilled at a time when they won't have much time to check email, and makes it easier to respond to everyone's good wishes.

About the Company
Web Baby Shower is owned and run by Bonnie Walker, a professional web developer turned work-from-home mom.