Elsevier

Midwifery

Volume 48, May 2017, Pages 46-52
Midwifery

The internet as a source of information used by women after childbirth to meet their need for information: A web-based survey

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2017.03.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

the aims of this survey were: (a) to evaluate the need of information after childbirth and what questions do ‘new’ mothers ask themselves; (b) to assess why and how women use the Internet to meet their need of information; (c) to describe how the respondents evaluate the reliability of the information found; (d) to understand how the information found on the Internet affects women's decision-making; and (e) to appreciate how health professionals react to the information found by the women.

Design

this study used a large web-based survey that was widely broadcasted on various websites and social networks.

Setting and participants

belgian women who had a child under 2 years old and who agreed to participate were included in the study.

Findings

349 questionnaires were valid for analyses. After childbirth, 90.5% of women admitted to using the Internet to seek information about themselves or about their baby, regardless of socioeconomic status or age. There were various reasons for seeking information on the Internet, but the most frequent reason the women expressed was to find information ‘on their own’ (88.1%). The most searched for topic was breastfeeding. The women believed that the information was quite useful (82.7%) but they assigned an average score of 5.3 out of 10 for the quality of the information they found on the Internet. Approximately 80% of the women felt that the Internet helped them control a decision that they made ‘a little’, ‘often’ or ‘very often’. Professionals are not always willing to talk about information found on the Internet with mothers. Therefore, many women believed that health professionals should suggest reliable Internet websites for new mothers.

Conclusions

the integration of the Internet and new technologies could be a useful tool during postpartum management.

Introduction

Currently, there is no need to be an expert in information technology to realize that the Internet is overly present and used in our daily life (Ethgen et al., 2016). Connecting to the Internet to communicate or seek information, should it be for private or professional purposes, has become a daily reflex. Internet usage is increasing heavily as more and more people have access to it (Dubowicz and Schulz, 2015). Indeed, in 2015, 75.0% of Belgian people (versus 61.7% in 2014) said that they had access to the Internet at home because they wanted to inform themselves (SPF Economie - Baromètre - Ménages et individus, 2016).

During pregnancy, (future) mothers seem to have a hunger for information (Lagan et al., 2010, Lagan et al., 2011, Larsson, 2009). Several studies showed that pregnant women are turning more and more to the Internet for information during pregnancy (Lagan et al., 2011, Lagan et al., 2006, Romano, 2007). The Internet is often the first source to check for information about pregnancy but also before making decisions about pregnancy or childbirth (Dickerson et al., 2004, Forkner-Dunn, 2003, Lagan et al., 2010).

The postnatal period appears to be a stressful time in the life of a woman with sudden and intense changes in women roles and responsibilities (Cristescu et al., 2015, Dayan, 2007, Norhayati et al., 2014). The need for information also appears to be well present in the postpartum period (Carolan, 2007, Emmanuel et al., 2001, Malata and Chirwa, 2011). In Belgium, a preliminary study undertaken by our team concentrated on identifying mothers’ needs during the year following childbirth reported a huge need for information after pregnancy (manuscript under review). This qualitative study also showed that a lot of women used the Internet (e.g. Websites and forums) to try to answer their questions. Nevertheless, mothers denounced the lack of reliability of these sources. Despite this perceived unreliability, women seem to continue to access the Internet and use the information they find online. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study that assesses the Internet as a source of information used by women after childbirth to meet their information needs.

Therefore, the aims of this survey were: (a) to evaluate the need of information after childbirth and what questions do ‘new’ mothers ask themselves; (b) to assess why and how women use the Internet to meet their need of information after childbirth; (c) to describe how the respondents evaluate the reliability of the information found; (d) to understand how the information found on the Internet affects women's decision-making after childbirth; and (e) to appreciate how health professionals react to the information found by the women.

Section snippets

Participants

We recruited women who had at least one child between 0 and 2 years old from various websites and social networks. There were no exclusion criteria; all women who had at least one child between 0 and 2 years old, who resided in Belgium, who understood French and who were agreed to complete the questionnaire were included in the study.

A Belgian governmental economic organization has evaluated the use of information technology in Belgian households (SPF Economie - Baromètre - Ménages et

Demographic characteristics

In total, 507 questionnaires were completed over a 3-month period; 158 questionnaires were eliminated (109 because the respondent did not reside in Belgium, 8 because the respondent's last child was at least 3 years old, 30 because they were pregnant and 11 because they responded only to the first questions). A flowchart of the respondents at the enrolment and at the end of the study was presented in Fig. 1. The demographic profile of the survey respondents is shown in Table 2.

Pregnancy and postnatal profile of respondents

The pregnancy and

Discussion

There is a real need for information during the perinatal period. This need has already been shown many times during the pregnancy period (Burton-Jeangros and Hammer, 2013, Hameen-Anttila et al., 2014, Lagan et al., 2010, Wallwiener et al., 2016). Our study showed that this need is still present after childbirth; more than 90% of women admitted seeking information about themselves or about their baby. First time mothers seemed to search for more information during the postnatal period but the

Conclusion

The postnatal period is accompanied by a lot of questions. Mothers have a great need for information after childbirth. While women are not always satisfied with the quality of the information they find on the Internet, it appears to be a solution widely used by women to fill this need. Indeed, although the information is not always reliable, many women considered the information that they found on the Internet to be useful as well as helpful for gaining control over a decision. Professionals

Conflict of interest

All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Authors’ contributions

JS, OB, JYR and PE conceived the study and developed the hypotheses and protocol. JS conceived the questionnaire. JS was responsible for the data collection, data management and data analyses. JS wrote the drafts of the article under the supervision of OB and PE. All the authors have read, reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

None.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank everyone who participated in this study, particularly all the women who responded to the survey.

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    1

    Support Unit in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Liège, Quartier Hôpital, Avenue Hippocrate 13, Bât. B23, 4000 Liège, Belgium.

    2

    Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Health Economics, University of Liège, Quartier Hôpital, Avenue Hippocrate 13, Bât. B23, 4000 Liège, Belgium.

    3

    Department and Head of the Public Health Department, Bone and cartilage metabolism Department, CHU Liège, Quai Godefroid Kurth 45, 4000 Liège, Belgium.

    4

    Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Liège, Quartier Hôpital, Avenue Hippocrate 13, Bât. B23, 4000 Liège, Belgium.

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