Fact-Checking Policy

Let's start with the honest part. My Mama Mode is one mom with a laptop. There is no fact-checking department here, no editorial board, no panel of doctors reading my drafts before they go live — and I'm never going to pretend otherwise. What there is: a stubborn rule about only telling you things that are true, and a plan for what happens when I get something wrong. Here's exactly how that works. 🤍

Most of this is lived experience — and I label it that way

The bulk of what you read here happened in my house: the 5pm meltdown, the recipe I've made forty times, the sleep thing that finally worked in week three. That's the whole point of this blog, and it's also the thing I can speak about most honestly.

But lived experience is not a study, and I never dress mine up as one. "This worked for us" and "this is proven" are two completely different sentences, and I keep them different. If something is my opinion, my hunch, or the one weird trick that only worked for my kid, you'll see it written that way.

When a post cites guidance, I link the primary source

Some topics aren't mine to freestyle — safe sleep, car seat rules, feeding and allergen introduction, milestones, recalls. When a post touches one of those, I go to the organization that actually issues the guidance and link straight to it: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, the NHTSA car seat pages, the FDA or CPSC recall notice, or the manufacturer's own manual. Not a listicle that cites a listicle that cites nobody.

Two rules I hold myself to:

• The link goes to the original. So you can read it yourself, see the date on it, and decide what you think.
• No source, no claim. If I can't find a primary source for something, it either gets written plainly as my own opinion or it doesn't go in the post at all.

Guidance also changes — sometimes right after you've memorized it. Older posts get revisited, and when a recommendation I've cited gets updated, the post gets updated too.

Product claims come from actually using the thing

If a product is reviewed here, it has been in my home and used by my family. The opinions come from months of real use — not a press release, not a spec sheet, not a photo I found online.

The hard numbers — price, dimensions, weight limits, whether the cover is machine washable — come from the manufacturer's own listing or manual, checked at the time of writing. Prices and packaging change constantly, so please always double-check the current listing before you buy. The full process lives on How We Test.

No AI-invented facts. No AI-invented life.

I use tools for the boring parts — spellcheck, formatting, wrestling with this website at 11pm. What I do not do is let software invent facts, statistics, sources, memories, or family stories. Every experience on this site actually happened, to us, and every claim in a post is one I checked myself before publishing it.

If the stories weren't real, there'd be no reason for this blog to exist.

Health content is never medical advice

Saying it plainly: I am not a doctor, midwife, lactation consultant, dietitian, or therapist, and nothing here has been reviewed by one. Posts that touch pregnancy, newborn, feeding, or health topics carry a reminder, but it's true of the whole site — this is one mother's experience plus links to the real guidance, and it should never replace care from your own provider, who actually knows you and your baby. Ask your doctor first. Then come back here for the part where someone tells you you're doing better than you think.

Think something here is wrong? Please tell me

Careful readers are the best fact-check this site has, and I mean that — posts have been corrected because a mama emailed me about a detail I'd gotten sideways. Here's the process:

• Email me. Send the post and what's off to hello@mymamamode.com. A link or a screenshot helps.
• I check it. I go back to the source, usually within a few business days.
• I fix it in the open. Meaningful corrections get an update note in the post itself, with the date, so nothing gets quietly rewritten behind your back. Typos and small clarity edits I just fix.

If I disagree with a correction, I'll tell you that too, and why. You won't get silence.

What this site doesn't have

You'll see other sites carry a "medically reviewed by" badge or a masthead full of experts. I don't have those, so I won't display them. No professional fact-checker, no editorial board, no medical reviewer — just me, my sources linked where you can check them, and a correction policy I actually follow.

For how posts get written, sponsored, and updated, see the Editorial Policy. Anything else, email me at hello@mymamamode.com — I read every message. ✦