Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature

Abstract

INTRODUCTION There are many mobile telephone apps to help women self-monitor aspects of pregnancy and maternal health. This literature review aims to understand midwives' perspectives on women self-monitoring their pregnancy using eHealth and mHealth, and establish gaps in research. METHODS MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL and PsycINFO were systematically searched on midwifery, eHealth/mHealth and perspectives. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods studies published in English were considered for inclusion in the review, without geographical limitations. Relevant articles were critically appraised and narrative synthesis was conducted. RESULTS Twelve relevant papers covering midwives' perspectives of the use of eHealth and mHealth by pregnant women were obtained for inclusion in this review. Seven of these publications focused on midwives' views of eHealth, and five on their perspectives of mHealth interventions. The studies included demonstrate that midwives generally hold ambivalent views towards the use of eHealth and mHealth technologies in antenatal care. Often, midwives acknowledged the potential benefits of such technologies, such as their ability to modernise antenatal care and to help women make more informed decisions about their pregnancy. However, midwives were quick to point out the risks and limitations of these, such as the accuracy of conveyed information, and negative impacts on the patient-professional relationship. CONCLUSIONS Post-COVID-19, where technology is continuously developing, there is a compelling need for studies that investigate the role of eHealth and mHealth in self-monitoring pregnancy, and the consequences this has for pregnant women, health professionals and organisations, as well as midwifery curricula.

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“…Effective weight management and return to healthy weight range was achieved by participants who adhered to online dietary advice to manage their gestational diabetes in one of the included studies [ 39 ]. These findings agreed with another review by Vickery et al [ 55 ] that found that effective utilisation of mobile and web-based health intervention promoted healthy gestational weight gain in pregnancy.…”

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“…This combination of passive learning with interactive tools of social networks can help PLW to improve their self-information skills, therefore healthcare professionals must be prepared to support the retrieval, interpretation and request of online information [ 1 , 47 , 65 , 66 ]. A recent systematic review aimed at understanding midwives’ perspectives on women self-monitoring of their pregnancy using eHealth concluded that they generally hold ambivalent views [ 67 ]. While noting its potential to help women to make informed decisions, they also point out the risk of accessing inaccurate information [ 67 ].…”

“…A recent systematic review aimed at understanding midwives’ perspectives on women self-monitoring of their pregnancy using eHealth concluded that they generally hold ambivalent views [ 67 ]. While noting its potential to help women to make informed decisions, they also point out the risk of accessing inaccurate information [ 67 ]. This highlights the necessity of providing PLW with specific skills to find and interpret valid and reliable health information online.…”

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“…However, qualitative reviews on midwives reported unfavorable findings which did not fully support the apps for several reasons [ 24 ]. Midwives were concerned about the accuracy of the apps [ 25 ] and their negative impacts on the patient-professional relationship, such as shifting the patient’s trust from trusted to untrusted sources [ 24 ].…”