I'm speaking at an adoption conference next month. Yes, I will be thirty-two weeks pregnant, speaking on the topic of adoption. Thankfully, the conference is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (my hometown, folks!) at the University of Pittsburgh which isn't too far from the hospital that stopped one bout of preterm labor that I had while pregnant with the Munchkin. That said, I'm aware that I'm somewhat insane. To be fair to myself, I signed up for this gig prior to the actual conception of this child though we were actively trying at the time. What is meant to be will be.

All that said: I NEED YOUR HELP! By the "you" of "your," I am referring to any birth/first/biological mother that publicly blogs. The paper that I am writing (and thus presenting) is entitled, "First Mothers Find a Voice." (In fact, if you look at the schedule for the day that our group of awesome people speaks, they actually use the word "First Mother." Score!) Back to the point.

In this paper I am addressing the explosion of blogging birth/first mothers into the blogosphere since the year 2005. Prior to that point, many birth mothers had found each other on private journaling sites, like LiveJournal, which allowed these mothers to write about their life experiences to a group of people which they controlled. Posts could be fully open to the public, locked to their "friends list," filtered to just a few of those so-called friends or made entirely private for personal reference. Birth mothers had also connected via writing on forums and in private groups on sites like Yahoo! and MSN which were often locked to the general public. Yet, in 2005, we saw a shift from these private ways of communicating to the more public form of blogging that we have all become accustomed to seeing. (I mean, if you're reading this blog, you get the point of public blogging.)

The point of the paper is to discuss this shift. I am of the opinion that some of it comes from the advances made in technology during the past two and a half years. However, that is not the only reason. I know it's not the only reason. You know it's not the only reason. Something is happening, on an ever-increasing and widening scale, that is allowing birth mothers the freedom to discuss whatever their experience has been, whatever they think needs to happen in the areas of reform and generally, whatever they please about adoption. Even nasty commenters, on the whole, have not deterred these mothers from "finding their voice."

And I want to know why. I can make speculation until the cows come home. However, I need actual birth mother input to solidify my speculations. And so, that's where YOU come in.

I need to know why you started blogging, publicly, about the issues that surround the placement of your child, adoption in general and the relationship that you currently have, long to have or had with your child. I am not putting any further stipulations on what I want from you. I just want to know the reasons why you started to find your public, online voice concerning the issues of adoption when you did. If it was simply because, "Everyone else started doing it," I find that answer to be 100% acceptable! I don't care what your reason is: maybe you were mad at the world, maybe you needed an outlet for the overwhelming emotion, maybe you started blogging to keep in touch with the adoptive family or your child.

Furthermore, if your reasons for continuing to blog on the topic of adoption have continued to morph over the past two years, please discuss those as well.

Even more furthermore, if you have decided to stop blogging in the public forum concerning adoption related issues over the past two and a half years, regressing to a more private form of blogging or perhaps ceasing entirely, please feel free to contact me with those reasons as well!

This discussion can take place in the form of comments, e-mails to me or posts on your own blogs. Due to the fact that our pinging system doesn't alert me as to when you've linked to a post of mine, please come back and leave your link (or hit me up on my personal blog or via e-mail). Your responses will help me greatly as I really start the meat and potatoes of this paper.

Beyond helping me accomplish a goal, you will help those who are attending the conference learn SOMETHING about first parents. Even if they've been nice enough to let us use the term of "first mother," not everyone in the audience is going to be automatically receptive to a pregnant woman telling them about mothers who "give up" their babies and then have "something to say about it." Use your words to help debunk those long standing stereotypes and myths. Help me tear down the walls.

Help us all find our voice in today's society.

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For more, read:

1. Verbalizing Your Grief.

2. Fresh Outlook Friday: Teen Pregnancy.

3. Top 10 Birth/First Parent Blogs.

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