Day One

A little overwhelming. That's what all the kind and loving responses turned out to feel like in the first 12 hours after putting my statement online. It seems social media can serve a purpose after all. :)

Responses came from everywhere. I've got messages from friends that I hadn't spoken to in years, old classmates, and people that I used to sport with two decades ago. People sent lovely personal messages through Whatsapp cheering me on, offering help getting this initiative rolling, or just complimenting me on sharing our story. 

But really rewarding was that I heard from two guys that shared their personal story with me. Stories they cannot, or had not told many people. They voiced, individually, that there's a need amongst the not yet dads to learn, share, and sympathize with each other. So, there's that. I seem to have struck a nerve. Now onwards with this passion project.

What to build?

Based on the reactions and help I've been offered, I'm struggling a bit with the right approach. Some people voiced the need to hear more about my personal story, especially how it continues since this weekend's miscarriage. Whereas I certainly do want to be open, my main objective of NYD is informative. Maybe the two can be combined; informative and stories. Does anyone have an excellent example of a website/place where that works well? I'd really like to know!

Plus, speaking with those two guys made me feel better at the same time. So I thought that something like an online community would be a beautiful thing to have. That raised the question if it should be an open or a closed community. Surely not everyone is willing to get help and be transparent about their hurting at the same time...?

Where to start?

As mentioned, there are four different topics that I'll try to cover:

1. The process of getting pregnant. Mainly focused on when, and how to deal with doctors and hospitals. Since I hope it will benefit both patients and doctors when they speak together. Elaborating about the process can turn out to be a vast topic, since ethics, law, and personal decision making can be included as well.
2. The biology of the human body. I think a mini-course biology makes sense, since a basic understanding of how reproducing works is needed to be able to base decisions upon in the future. Plus, it smoothes conversations with doctors tenfold. I certainly had to look things up on Wikipedia after my first conversations with the Doc. 
3. What can go wrong when trying to get pregnant. This is a hard topic to write an integral piece on since there are so many reasons pregnancies won't develop at all. Plus, there seems to be just as many reasons why they terminate before the birth of a healthy baby. I'm surely going to need help from the specialists here.
4. Options you have to try to influence things for the better. I think that most NYD-men will skip towards this chapter, only to find out that there's utterly little you can actually do to go from no-baby to healthy-baby. Still, the low hanging fruit that some men are not aware of could really make a difference.
   

Where do you think I should start?

Can you tell me what you want to read, see, or view most? I'd really like to know. Especially if you think I might miss something important.

Thanks in advance for your input!
Maryn

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