Best Sites: Pregnancy and Child Rearing

BabyCenter: Baby Namer

About this site: Naming a baby can be almost as hard as having one! Whether you want a moniker that reflects your cultural heritage or shows your kid is one of a kind, the Baby Namer at BabyCenter.com can help you find one that's perfect. Check out the guidelines for selecting a name, browse the most popular ones then and now, and search by gender, number of syllables, or ethnic origin. (http://www.babycenter.com/babyname/)

Pluses: Use the bulletin boards to find someone to bounce your latest ideas off of.

Minuses: There's no pronunciation guide to help with some of the more unusual names.

Best feature: You can search using any or all of the choices, including multiple ethnic origins.

Pregnancy Today

About this site: Personal stories, diaries, and discussion boards are the focus of Pregnancy Today. Separate forums are available for first-time moms, experienced moms, moms over forty, dads-to-be, single parents, and parents who have lost a baby. (http://pregnancytoday.com/)

Pluses: More than 100 personal accounts of what birth is really like.

Minuses: Front page design makes site difficult to navigate.

Best feature: Talk with other expectant parents about breastfeeding, nutrition, and postpartum depression in the interactive rooms.

La Leche League International

About this site: Check out articles on everything from feeding preemies to expressing breast milk at work from the leading breastfeeding advocacy group. You can also order books, read up on government legislation, and learn how to get involved. (http://www.lalecheleague.org/)

Pluses: Find a breastfeeding workshop, seminar, or leader near you.

Minuses: Strong emphasis on political action may be too much for some mothers.

Best feature: An index to La Leche League groups worldwide, where women can find support and friendship.

BabyCenter: Development Timeline

About this site: Find out what to do and what to expect from the time you decide to have a baby until your child's first birthday. As you scroll down the page you'll find handy "to-do" checklists, reading lists, and links to helpful articles. (http://www.babycenter.com/timeline.html)

Pluses: Timeline is incredibly thorough, featuring suggestions such as "Start researching childbirth classes" (Week 18), which link to other areas of the site.

Minuses: You need to scroll up and down a lot on the long page.

Best feature: You can register to get personalized e-mails for your stage of pregnancy.

AmnioNet

About this site: See how a baby grows in the womb with ultrasound pictures that chart embryonic and fetal development. The site also examines potential complications at each stage of pregnancy and the safety of taking an amniocentesis test to check for chromosome defects. (http://www.amnionet.com/contents.htm)

Pluses: Pictures and graphs give an idea of what to expect at prenatal checkups.

Minuses: Images take a long time to download; frames make navigation difficult.

Best feature: A description of brain development explains how amnio tests can be used to detect such defects as Down syndrome.