PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Background Social media offer expecting and new mothers a space to discuss birth-related fears, hopes and experiences. This is particularly the case during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has altered delivery of maternity care. Measures to reduce transmission risk in birth facilities and changes in birth plans are likely to have had an impact on new mothers' experiences of birth and birth care. From a feminist epidemiology perspective, seeking to incorporate more the views of the “researched”, we explored themes discussed by (expecting) mothers on social media, hoping that those real-life concerns would find echo in the design of future research instruments for data collection. Methods Using content analysis, we identified key themes in 200+ comments posted on a social media public page as a reaction to the dissemination of a research survey on maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany. Results In the comments, the most mentioned topics were own mask wearing, having a companion of choice during birth, visiting hours, and the possibility to welcome visitors (e.g. siblings of the newborn, other relatives and friends). Those topics also generated the most reactions, revealing compassion from other women and mixed feeling about health measures (from acceptance to anger). Concerns about quality or appropriateness of care were almost absent from the data. Conclusions Social media content analysis shows clearly that women giving birth during the pandemic are most concerned with a specific set of disrupting and potentially upsetting measures. These spontaneous testimonies differ content-wise from what research surveys tend to ask women about (e.g. care standards). Those discrepancies are to some extent inevitable, but integrating more bottom-up generated topics from social media into research instruments could help move forward toward better care.