New Social Utility Enables Mom-to-Mom Charity

Long Island, NY - December 30, 2008 - Are out-grown baby clothes piling up in your home? Are you having a hard time finding someone who could use these clothes and all of the other costly baby/maternity items that are taking up your storage space? Are you looking to vent about your unfriendly OB-GYN or maybe spread the word about your child's helpful pediatrician? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions then you are not alone, according to the feedback from new users of TheBabyChain.com

TheBabyChain.com is an experimental social utility that functions primarily as a mom-to-mom donation network and secondarily as a pediatrician/OB-GYN referral network. It was originally conceived of by co-founders Kristin Armbrecht and Nick Myers, who, after the birth of their first child, Silas, found themselves lamenting the high-cost/low-usage nature of baby and maternity goods. According to co-founder Kristin Armbrecht "We were both first-time parents and we had been buying heaps of clothes and toys every few months to keep up with our son's rapid physical and intellectual growth. We were concerned about maximizing the usage of this stuff, but we realized that we had no friends with younger baby boys that we could give our almost-new clothes and toys to and we did not want to throw any of it out. That is when we had the idea for TheBabyChain.com"

Typically, clothing donors and seekers will post on Craigslist or another of the myriad online classified services on the web to exchange goods. "To me this is somewhat problematic." says co-founder Nick Myers. "Since online classifieds are not catering to a particular demographic and function, then the people that you need to donate goods and those to receive goods are kept apart, so to speak. This is inefficient. When it comes to children needing clothes or a crib, efficiency in finding these things is everything."

Not only does TheBabyChain bring donors and potential recipients together in one social network, but it also expedites the item listing process by allowing for moms to list items based on item type, age and size. After you post you items, they will appear in your profile in either a "Haves" grid or a "Needs" grid, depending on whether you are donating goods, seeking goods or both. You can search for both goods and users by area and it is 100% free to users. The whole profile creation and listing process takes less than 5 minutes.

Ms. Armbrecht realized that in order to find a good pediatrician or OB-GYN one would generally use trial and error or a recommendation from a friend or family member. "The only other option is to ask your health insurance company for a recommendation, which is pointless." says Kristin. "In addition to the mom-to-mom donation network, the site provides the functionality for moms to refer the pediatricians and OB-GYNS that they are happy with to other moms, through our built-in social network. They can also tell fellow moms about doctors that they have had bad experiences with, both of which are examples of empowerment through the efficiency of the web."

Ms. Armbrecht attempts to sum it up: "It is really about empowerment and community… Some of us are working moms and some of us stay-at-home, but at the end of the day we are all nurturers and this site is a celebration of that and all else that we have in common, the good, the bad and the ugly. The best part is that TheBabyChain is about donating something tangible and pragmatic, to a new found friend in the real-world, and not simply donating advice over the internet." Kristin adds "I think that in the end, it's the new generation of recipient babies that will benefit the most from TheBabyChain.com, both socially and otherwise."

TheBabyChain Inc. (a privately-held Delaware corporation) is an experimental social utility for mothers that functions primarily as a mom-to-mom donation network and secondarily as a pediatrician/OB-GYN referral network. It allows mothers to request and/or donate high quality, second-hand baby and maternity goods. It also allows moms to refer the doctors that they are happy with to other moms through our social network. So come on, what are you waiting for? Help build TheBabyChain!

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