From miscarriage to noisy neighbours, Magicmum members give each other real- life, relevant support and information
SINEAD CROWE (25) joined Magicmum in August 2006 when she and her husband Sean were starting to try for a baby.
"I had a really horrible year last year, with three miscarriages. If I could not have logged on and talked to people who had the same experience, I don't think I would have coped as well," she says.
Now eight months pregnant she says, "I've been off work for weeks with various pregnancy complications and having people to talk to online has kept me sane. I post mostly about pregnancy problems or food - the two main concerns in my life right now."
Living in Kimmage, Dublin, she says she doesn't know her neighbours, but through Magicmum she has been able to meet up with mothers living in the area and looks forward to their company and support once the baby is born. "I enjoy the camaraderie and the friendships I have made."
Crowe thinks her husband is a bit bewildered by the concept, "but I know he is glad I can vent or moan to the Magicmum girls and not to him".
As a couple, they are no strangers to the online world, having met through a Yahoo chatroom.
"I was on holidays in the US and chatting away to a guy in Ireland and it turned out he lived just around the corner," says Crowe. On her return they met up, and married five years later.
She was all set to go to the Magicmum ball, "I got an evening maternity dress on eBay; I have the shoes and bag", but a recent fall down stairs has confined her to bed rest.
For Sue Cloonan (37) who lives in Co Tipperary, the best part of Magicmum "has been the way it has enabled me to meet up with other mums from my own area of the country. About six of us have met up a couple of times now for dinner and we plan to meet up again very soon."
A full-time student of website design and the mother of two daughters, aged 15 and 11, she joined the discussion forum in December 2005.
"I didn't really use it much until March the following year when I was having problems with noisy neighbours and wanted to see had anyone any advice on how to deal with them. They did."
She says she spends "way too much time" on the site. "I post daily and usually several times a day. Recently I've sought information on selling my house. I like the recipes section and the general chit chat for late-night MM users."
Her husband, John, thinks she devotes too much time to it "but that it keeps me out of trouble", she says. They also met online, through a dating website.
The couple are going to the ball and the non-profit recycling website which they run, www.itsinmyway.com, is sponsoring one of the raffle prizes.
Louise Keelan (31), the mother of Janice (14) and four-year-old Sean, has been a member of Magicmum since shortly after it was set up, in July 2004. "I joined Sean's birth club [for mothers expecting in the same month]." She had been a member of another online discussion forum, "but there was a lot of bitching on that".
Four years later the birth group is still going strong, with about 13 of them talking regularly on the board.
Living in Tallaght, Dublin, and working as a special needs assistant in a primary school, she says it's a "good social outlet for people who can't go out and mix with real people in the flesh". She logs on at least five days a week.
"My husband works nights at the weekends so I would be yapping away on it until all hours. He jokes about my 'pretend friends' but he knows I need my daily fix."
What she most enjoys about the discussion forum is "the camaraderie, and it's a mine of information - real-life, relevant information that is reliable. My daughter is disabled and I wanted to get a disabled sticker to put up in the car but I was refused because the driver wasn't disabled. So I put up a question on the site asking is this true." She is still pursuing some of the information that came back.
She has also shared a lot with another mother of a child who has a similar disability to Janice.