"Mothers as Candy Wrappers": Critical Infrastructure Supporting the Transition into Motherhood

Copyright © ACM. The transition into motherhood is a complicated and often unsupported major life disruption. To alleviate mental health issues and to support identity re-negotiation, mothers are increasingly turning to online mothers\u27 groups, particularly private and secret Facebook groups; these can provide a complex system of social, emotional, and practical support for new mothers. In this paper we present findings from an exploratory interview study of how new mothers create, find, use, and participate in ICTs, specifically online mothers\u27 groups, to combat the lack of formal support systems by developing substitute networks. Utilizing a framework of critical infrastructures, we found that these online substitute networks were created by women, for women, in an effort to fill much needed social, political, and medical gaps that fail to see \u27woman and mother\u27 as a whole being, rather than simply as a \u27discarded candy wrapper\u27. Our study contributes to the growing literature on ICT use by mothers for supporting and negotiating new identities, by illustrating how these infrastructures can be re-designed and appropriated in use, for critical utilization

Understanding how parents deal with the health advice they receive: A qualitative study and implications for the design of message-based health dissemination systems for child health

Message-based health information dissemination systems can potentially improve maternal and child health (MCH). By conveying health information to parents, SMS- and chatbot-based systems can support parents’ learning and empower them to make better health decisions for their children. However, there is limited design advice for creating message-based dissemination systems for MCH. To help address this gap, we conducted 14 participatory workshops with 42 parents from Portugal and South Africa, exploring how parents learned to care for their children’s health. Our findings showed how parents reflected on the health advice they received, by assessing the fit of the advice to their child’s characteristics, their values and beliefs, the advice’s feasibility, or the intention and competence of the advice giver. Based on these insights, we propose four design implications for creating message-based health information dissemination systems tailored to parents and their children

A Phenomenological Study on The Experiences of Christian Mothers Navigating Through Societal Worldviews and Social Movements

This study will investigate the lived experiences of Christian mothers as they navigate through various societal worldviews and influences. By examining the available studies on the misuse of Christian doctrine that facilitate the patriarchal worldview and the feminist movement to abolish faith-based gender assignment, the need to investigate the experiences of Christian mothers will be identified. Moreover, the burden of social conformity will be examined. Motherhood can feel like unfamiliar territory as mothers take on their role of motherhood. Investigating these influences and identifying the common experiences mothers face will help to better support Christian mothers. Investigating these lived experiences will be done through a qualitative study. This study will explore the experiences of ten mothers of the Christian faith. The experiences reported by these mothers during their interviews will be analyzed to identify common trends. The findings will focus on what trends are experienced under this societal perception to help identify the impact of these social influences

Postnatal Depressive Symptoms and Social Media Use for Support amongst Mothers and Fathers within the First Year Postpartum

Postnatal depression (PND) can have substantial detrimental effects on the wellbeing and adjustment of mothers and fathers, and ultimately on the development of infants. Whilst many parents have chosen to use social media for parenting support and information, it is unclear what role postnatal mental health plays in digital behaviours. This doctoral research aimed to investigate the impact of maternal and paternal PND symptoms on social media usage and perceived social support, gain a detailed insight into the function of social media in parental adjustment, and examine gender differences in online language related to PND. The current research consisted of five individual studies, and it employed a mixed-methods approach, utilising quantitative (self-reported questionnaires), qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and corpus-linguistic techniques to analyse data collected from mothers and fathers with at least one baby under one year old. The results from the quantitative studies indicated that mothers and fathers with higher risk of PND were more likely to engage in online comparisons with other parents, and to report lower levels of perceived social support, compared to parents with low risk of PND. The qualitative studies revealed that parents identified social media sites as advantageous in connecting with other parents and receiving night-time support, as well as disadvantageous due to unreliable information, curated content, and an imbalance in the maternal versus paternal-specific resources. Finally, the fifth study utilised a corpus-linguistic analysis of PND-related Twitter content and revealed that there were gender differences in the language used to discuss PND online. Female Twitter users were found to be more likely to discuss PND from a personal perspective, with the use of adjectives that express difficulty, whereas male Twitter users were focused on the PND experiences of other parents. Twitter accounts representing organisations, such as charities, medical or educational institutions, were considerably more inclined to post content focused on motherhood or maternal PND, with limited content related to fatherhood or paternal PND. Overall, this doctoral research indicated that PND symptoms have a clear impact on digital behaviours and perceived support amongst parents, and that there are problematic discrepancies within the accessibility of maternal and paternal online support. The findings have important clinical and practical implications for improved perinatal healthcare practice, policy change, postnatal mental health awareness, as well as technological additions, in the form of evidence-based online parenting platforms