The Use of Social Media, Online Support Groups, and Apps for Pregnant Women During COVID-19

Abstract

At the start of 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Pregnant women were deemed a vulnerable group globally and advised to shield. Due to social distancing and the changes in maternity services, it was a reasonable assumption that pregnant women would turn to the online platform for advice and guidance. Using reflexive thematic analysis, this chapter explored the effect of social media, support groups, and app usage on pregnant women during the outbreak. Results evidenced that pregnant women utilised social media, support groups, and apps for information and support. Positive aspects were maintaining social connections whilst adhering to social distancing guidelines, access to support groups and people in similar situations, and ease of access to information. Negative aspects were excessive amounts of and overwhelming information, misinformation, judgement from others, and increased anxiety. Apps were deemed positive for general pregnancy but lacked COVID-19-related information.

Generalized anxiety disorder among mothers attending perinatal services during COVID-19 pandemic: using ordinal logistic regression model

“…Concerns about COVID [ 53 ]. Pregnant women expressed concerns about their birth, and the COVID-19 outbreak did increase pregnant women's levels of anxiety that are both general and health anxiety levels [ 54 ]. According to Green et al., pre-pandemic anxiety in perinatal women was one in five, but has since increased with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 53 ].…”

Vaccine Hesitancy Phenomenon Evolution during Pregnancy over High-Risk Epidemiological Periods—“Repetitio Est Mater Studiorum”

“…An important aspect to be mentioned, apart from “quantity”, refers to the quality of the programs that pregnant women attended. If, before the pandemic, most of the courses were frontal, thus facilitating interaction, the shift to online education brought important changes in the way participants interacted amongst themselves and with the teaching staff, adding the possibility of losing attention due to distractions and providing, sometimes, an overwhelming quantity of information [ 37 ]. Interestingly, despite the higher grade of previous participation in multiple educational programs dedicated to pregnant women, an important decrease in vaccine acceptance was reported in our study, leading to the possibility that, during the later years, other factors were more important in shaping the opinion of pregnant women with respect to vaccine acceptance than the education provided by trained medical staff [ 19 , 20 , 38 ].…”