Using Geeky Tools to Plan for Our Birth

Sue is 37 weeks pregnant, so we're spending our weekends really getting our ducks in a row.

Since Sue and I come from the tech world, it's an easy leap for us to use geeky tools to plan for our birth.

One example is Basecamp, a project management tool we use for work projects. Although I've written about my pains using Basecamp over on my tech blog in the past (http://go.DanielOdio.com/basecamp) , it continues to be the best lightweight & effective project management tool we've found.

So, we figured, why not use it to plan our birth?

Here's a screenshot of what our Basecamp birth project looks like, with some notes:

We invited our midwife to the project, and she's been great, actively contributing to the project.

One great aspect of this form of birth planning is that it allows us to do it asynchronously. If you're not used to async communication, just think about it like this: Instead of me, Sue and our midwife having to be in the same room at the same time to have a conversation, we can do it thorough messages on Basecamp, allowing us to cover much more ground, much more effectively. Freeing the parties involved from the restraints of having to occupy the same physical space, at the same time, allows for much more efficient communication. And we get the added benefit of being able to focus our time when we are all in the same room together on the things that are better done in-person, instead of spending time catching up on all the other points.

We'd love to hear your geeky tips for parenting in the comment thread below! One other geeky thing Sue and I have (semi joked about) doing: Sewing a Tile (http://danielodio.com/tile-is-lojack-for-anything) into the clothes of our kid, so we can track her down using our mobile phone!