Our new Web site for mom

I could dress this up as an early Mother's Day column, because, as you know, I am a big supporter of motherhood and would appreciate your vote when you go to the polls Tuesday.

But really, I just have some business to transact here, the promoting of our new moms' Web site -- trianglemom2mom.com. The guys who do "Car Talk" on NPR have their Shameless Commerce division where they flog T-shirts, and I like that kind of transparency. And so consider this plug a little Shameless Commerce, even as we hope this site will help moms and thus provide a public service.

Anyway, a few months ago, we decided to start up this Web site and we had a lot of discussion about how to organize it. We settled on a look that would parallel the stages of motherhood -- from trying to get pregnant, to being a new mother, to being a more experienced mom. Even a lunkhead like me knows that there are different things you need to know and worry about depending on whether you are pregnant or whether you are a mom who has to don a haz-mat suit to enter your teenager's room.

We got the thing up and running several weeks back, but didn't make a fuss initially. We didn't actually tell anyone except some moms we asked to take it out for a test drive. We've gotten some great feedback from them, and now it's ready for its close-up.

One of our reporters, Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, has been overseeing the creation of the content on trianglemom2mom. She has a 3-year-old daughter, and you can e-mail her from our site. You can also contact Teresa Leonard, who is our director of News Research, with any technical questions. She, too, is a mom -- two teenage guys. And this site couldn't have happened without Colleen Stafford, an N&O Web designer, who is expecting a daughter in June. It helped enormously to have the varied perspectives -- and hard work -- of Sarah, Teresa and Colleen. You can go on the site and see all the featured bloggers, the resource pages, the forums, the places where you can post photos, the calendar where you can learn about events and post your own, and the coupon page.

We are having a launch party for the site at Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh next Saturday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Regular Marbles admission fee required.) Our bloggers will be there, as well as musicians playing kids tunes, a clown and exhibitors. Anyone who signs up on our site by May 31 will be in a drawing to win Marbles prizes.

Members on this site can post to existing forums or create their own. I asked Sarah for the OK to contribute with a post to the pregnant forum page, because I thought I could spark a discussion on what guys should do to be helpful when their loved ones are in labor.

Now, you may be curious as to what insight I have in this regard. Well, one specific insight: Sometimes, when a woman is in labor, she will ask her mate to oh-so-gently dab her forehead with a moist paper towel.

I learned 22 years ago that it is a good idea to make sure that this is a barely damp towel and not a somewhat damper towel. That's because a wet, unwrung-out towel can result in a cascade effect over a woman's eyes and nose. It turns out that in the transition phase of labor, being waterboarded by your Lamaze coach is an unwelcome sensation.

So this discussion thread sprang to mind, and I invite your comments at trianglemom 2mom.com/forum (click on "pregnant.") Perhaps prospective dads may benefit as well as moms, because, evidently, forehead dabbing badly executed will result in the retelling and retelling of the "incredibly wet towel" incident, as it becomes known over the years.

Enjoy the site, please, and let us know what you think.