Today we’ll talk with registered nurse Tori Kropp who has recently authored The Joy of Pregnancy. We’ll find out more about this guide for parents to be and what makes it different from other books for expectant parents. This is Part 1 of a two-part interview.
Cheryl Malandrinos (Q): Welcome to Divine Caroline, Tori. It’s great to have you with us.
Tori Kropp (A): It is great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Q: Please tell us a bit about yourself.
A: I have been a prenatal nurse for more than twenty years. Even years before, I had a fascination with birth that has led me on this long and expanding road of pregnancy. There is nothing I know more about than “birthing” babies. I have seen more that 2,000 babies come into the world in hospitals, birth centers, bedrooms, bathtubs, hammocks and even in the back of a pickup truck! I practice in a very well respected, family-centered women’s hospital in San Francisco.
Q: I hear that you’ve been called “the Dear Abby of pregnancy.” How did that all come about?
A: It actually started in the mid 1990s. In 1990, I founded a unique pre and post-natal teaching program: PillowTalk, Modern Childbirth Education. My strategy in these classes—teaching women not to overwhelm themselves with information and to focus instead on trusting their bodies and enjoying their pregnancies—was very well received in the San Francisco/Bay area. The classes came to be known as the “common-sense” ones to take. In 1995, I began Stork Site®, a community website for expectant and new parents. Bursting with activity, this site became one of the Internet’s first successful communities and later became a part of ivillage.com.
On Stork Site, I authored a question and answer forum called “Ask Tori, R.N.” in which I answered questions from the community. The users of the community started to refer to themselves as “Storkies” and someone mentioned that my answers to the pregnancy questions had the same sort of common sense that the Dear Abby column had. It was then that the “Dear Abby of Pregnancy” title was born. It kind of stuck.
