Social Media and Evidence-Based Maternity Care: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

Area of Science:

• Maternal Health
• Digital Health Communication
• Health Information Seeking Behavior

Background:

• Social media platforms are increasingly utilized for health information exchange.
• Understanding how expectant parents navigate online resources for maternity care is crucial.
• Evidence-based information plays a vital role in informed decision-making during pregnancy and childbirth.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the utilization of social media for finding and sharing evidence-based maternity care information.
• To describe patterns of engagement with online health resources among women seeking maternity care information.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional, internet-based survey design.
• Recruitment of 1,661 participants from childbirth-related blogs.
• Data collection on social media use for maternity information acquisition and dissemination.

Main Results:

• High participant engagement in using social media for maternity information.
• Strong interest in reading online evidence-based maternity care articles.
• Intention to utilize found information, with a notable percentage not planning to discuss it with childbirth educators or physicians.

Conclusions:

• Social media is a significant channel for women seeking and sharing evidence-based maternity care information.
• Interest in online evidence-based resources is high, indicating a demand for accessible health information.
• A gap exists in the communication of online-sourced maternity information between patients and healthcare providers.