Virtual relationships?

I have questions about facebook that I think will keep me from signing up again.  I took the plunge when a friend asked me about my son's facebook which I didn't know he had and when I realized that some friends switched to doing facebook rather than writing emails or calling.  I quickly found that there were friends from all over who wanted to be friends again.  How gratifying!  How mundane I found it after a few days of reading about people's scores of games they play daily or their little snippets of life, but not really knowing what is really going on.  I found it to be frustrating, too, wondering about the "secret" that someone posted but didn't reveal what the secret was.  Of course, none of it is my business but that titillating tidbit created curiosity.   I don't think the way I want to find out about a couple's marriage failing is through seeing that their marital status has been changed to complicated.  I'm not sure just how free one is to express oneself on a social network where one may be afraid that some certain person should not know about something.  That sounds complicated, doesn't it?  I often hear of people saying that they don't want it known on facebook because of ...  So, does that mean facebook really doesn't satisfy our intense need for real relationships and that we cannot be free to express to all of our friends just exactly what we want to say?  Well, that makes sense since sometimes we can only tell one friend where we won't want to reveal to all of our acquaintances every thought we have, but facebook doesn't differentiate between casual and deep friendships, does it?

This article gives a good assessment of facebook.

I would like some feedback of how facebook works for you, please.  I'm asking in all sincerity.  Most of my friends are on there and I almost think I should be, too.  You know, so that I'm connecting.  A friend voiced a concern that I thought inevitable.  She said she wasn't comfortable with some female friends of her husband's on facebook.  I think it's easier to deal with those face to face relationships with the opposite sex.  We normally just don't do it, right?  Without our spouses.  But on facebook, it's normal and so much easier to just add someone, anyone, as a friend.  It could be that the success of facebook shows us how lacking we are to our friends.  Maybe if we all reached out more on a real face to face level, there wouldn't be such a need for daily virtual affirmation?

Maybe I'm just worried that my children will one day communicate with us and each other on facebook.  And that's it.  And life goes on but we've connected.

Baby is 25 weeks

I'm up to 102 pounds and my belly definitely shows it!  My babies always sit low so breathing is never an issue but I do feel pressure in my pelvic area and much more so as I get nearer to birth.

While I am not comfortable with having anyone other than my immediate family at my births, I am considering having this birth videotaped by one of our older children.  I think it may be a blessing to this child when s(he) becomes an adult or maybe it may help one of our children's spouses to understand more about homebirths if they don't know much about it.  I think I will see how I feel about it when labor begins...maybe if the videotaping could be so unobtrusive as to not make me feel inhibited, it may happen.  Maybe my husband might not be comfortable with the idea of our intimate birth captured on video.  Sometimes my husband has reservations in areas I don't and vice versa.

At the grocery store today, an acquaintance asked to watch the birth of our baby.  I explained about how private and intimate it is to us but that there was the possibility of a video.  If a video of our birth could help others while not intruding into our privacy, then I think I'm up for it. 

Here are some internet links to homebirth information:

 http://www.gentlebirth.org/format/myths.html

http://www.gentlebirth.org/ronnie/homesafe.html

http://www.ministryofmidwifery.com/images/pdfs/HartlandFlyer2010.pdf
(What a wonderful opportunity this seminar would be for those interested in becoming a midwife or a doula!)

Childbirth books

These are the books that I have on childbirth that are especially noteworthy:

A Book for Midwives
  A manual for traditional birth attendants and community midwives
by Susan Klein

The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Birth Companions
by Penny Simkin

The American Way of Birth
by Jessica Mitford

Homebirth
by Sheila Kitzinger

The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth
by Sheila Kitzinger

Immaculate Deception II
by Suzanne Arms

A Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
by Henci Goer

Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities
by Henci Goer

Birth as An American Rite of Passage
by Robbie E. Davis-Floyd

Hearts and Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth
by Elizabeth Davis

Special Delivery
by Rahima Baldwin

The Naturally Healthy Pregnancy
by Shonda Parker

The Five Standards for Safe Childbearing
by David Stewart

Emergency Childbirth
by Gregory White
(I printed my copy on my printer from an internet link but I can't seem to find a good link anymore.)

Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way
by Susan McCutcheon-Rosegg


Active Birth: The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally
by Janet Balaskas


Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
by Ina May


I have found some of the above books on paperbackswap.com for free!  No kidding!  Homebirth, The American Way of Birth, The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth and others.  I really didn't expect to find such treasures on paperbackswap but they're out there!


Please share what books you've found helpful with childbirth!