Martin S. Lerman/Gazette Betsy Gartrell-Judd of Kingston, above, and Nancy Price of California, are the editors of a new magazine called e-pregnancy, an off-shoot of their successful Web site for expecting parents.

Two women joined a pregnancy chat room on the Internet. Their babies were due in March 1996 -- as it turned out the two children were born the same day.

Also born was a successful partnership between the moms, Betsy Gartrell-Judd of Kingston and Nancy Price of California. They became partners in a dot.com business focusing on pregnancy and parenting issues.

The two had not met and still have not met. For four years they have done business via telephone, e-mail and instant messaging. Regardless of how they communicate, their web businesses are a success.

The Web site was so successful, it was the first to launch a magazine. The magazine, ePregnancy, is an offshoot of their Web site e-pregnancy.com.

"As far as I know we are the only magazine that is the progeny of a big, stand-alone Internet content site," Gartrell-Judd said. "And we have this other resource for our readers we have been nurturing for the last three and a half years."

She expects this trend to be copied by other Web sites.

Gartrell-Judd and Price were working with another magazine about pregnancy for a year. When they left that project, they were contacted by a publisher.

"They wanted to know if we wanted to develop a magazine of our own -- epregnancy," she said. "The publisher took care of the financing and we started working on the magazine in January."

The first issues hit the stands last week, touting along with the name, 'Your monthly guide for everything pregnancy' on the cover.

Other articles in the issue include the most popular boys' names, sex before, during and after pregnancy, summer fashions - the hottest looks for the season, 10 outrageous pregnancy myths and how to prevent stretch marks.

Gartrell-Judd and Price are the editors-in-chief of the magazine and find the position challenging.

"On the Web site we can run everything we think is relevant," Gartrell-Judd said.

"With a magazine, we are limited. We've already had many articles submitted. We have more than we could possibly run in a million years and have barely begun to scratch the surface."

Their Web site is listed on the top 10 of a list of sites which use the work of free-lance writers. That's one reason the publishers contacted them.

"The magazine is limited in how much it can talk about in each issue," Gartrell-Judd said.

"We talk about general questions, health, including alternative messages," Gartrell-Judd said.

"The overall theme is to present the alternatives so women can make conscious decisions about their health care, no matter what they decide to do."

The staff is the same people the two women worked with on their Web site. There also is a panel of specialists the editors consult.

"These are our main experts. One of our doctors looks over articles that have a medical component. She corrects any errors in reporting." she said.

"We can say our articles have been reviewed by experts."

The ePregnancy magazine can be found at local Kroger stores.

(Williams can be reached at 772-9372 or via e-mail at mailto:jewilliams@nncogannett.com

Originally published Monday, June 17, 2002