As 2010 winds down with The New Year on the horizon, let us take a moment to contemplate what we have accomplished here at Science & Sensibility over the past twelve months. Largely commandeered by Amy Romano in the past year, S&S has seen a 78% increase in world-wide traffic with over 113,000 visitors dropping by from 20 different countries and every state in the U.S. Over the course of nearly one hundred posts by eighteen contributing writers, our words were heavily contemplated - garnering over 1,500 comments by our interested and impassioned readers.

Science & Sensibility's momentum has been fueled by the vibrant interaction between writers and readers, covering topics such as: home vs. hospital birth, evidence-based maternity care and sometimes the lack-there-of and miraculous birth stories. We have gone forth to discuss the potential dangers of Misoprostol and the potential side effects of cesarean sections. We learned more about the role of the doula and shared thoughts on what constitutes 'beauty' in terms of childbirth. In fact, we have just landed on Babble's Top Ten List of the Best Pregnancy/Birth Blogs of 2010. (Kudos to Giving Birth With Confidence for landing the number one spot!)

So, coming on the tail of a fabulous year of writing, idea sharing and highlighting the latest research pertaining to pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period, what can we look forward to in the New Year?

I can assure you our writing will continue to be strong, our coverage of research and evidence-based guidelines extensive. You will hear from many of the Science & Sensibility writers you have come to appreciate, and meet many new contributors as well. My hope, too, is that we continue to reach those who can benefit from our work the most: maternity, labor and postpartum care providers as well as the new and expectant parents with whom they interact. I commend each member of this community to continually seek new ways to push the boundaries between commonly accepted maternity care practices and better, safer, evidence-based care. And I encourage those practicing the safest levels of evidence-based care to speak up and share your success stories. I hope that, no matter what side of the philosophical fence you find yourself on, that you can earnestly contemplate the stance of another's point of view and be open to the potential educational opportunities contained therein. Challenge yourself to neither romanticize one extreme version of maternity care nor demonize the other but, instead, seek the safety in truth that lies somewhere in between.

To those of you who regularly follow this blog site, I offer my heart-felt thanks - particularly to those who take the next step and share the information contained herein through your own on-line networks. The ultimate power of social media is born of the expansive dissemination of information. I urge each of you reading this post to play your part: share links of interest to those in your own private (and professional) networks. Use your voice. The pen is, in fact, mightier than the sword.

For those of you dropping by on occasion: please feel invited to come back on a more regular basis. If you have not done so already, click on the RSS Feed button on the upper right hand side of your screen to ensure your receipt of each new blog post. Great things are surging ahead... make sure you're a part of the wave.

Let us all, ultimately, remember that each of us finds our way here through our germane devotion to investigating and employing safe, healthy and happy pregnancy, birth and postpartum experiences. In a perfect world, all three aspects would conjoin to become one reality. I invite you to join me on the road in pursuit of that perfection.

Published: December 29, 2010

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