Digital Motherhood
Smartphone apps for self-tracking breastfeeding emerged as a popular tool among new mothers. Yet, we know little about how mothers use these apps and, most importantly, how self-tracking breastfeeding relates to maternal well-being. After surveying a sample of German mothers engaging with breastfee...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Zurich, IKMZ – Department of Communication and Media Research
2022-09-01
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| Series: | European Journal of Health Communication (EJHC) |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ejhc.org/article/view/3234 |
| _version_ | 1811203880512389120 |
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| author | Nariman Sawalha Veronika Karnowski |
| author_facet | Nariman Sawalha Veronika Karnowski |
| author_sort | Nariman Sawalha |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Smartphone apps for self-tracking breastfeeding emerged as a popular tool among new mothers. Yet, we know little about how mothers use these apps and, most importantly, how self-tracking breastfeeding relates to maternal well-being. After surveying a sample of German mothers engaging with breastfeeding trackers (n = 234; recruited via an online access panel), we identified three types of self-tracking usage: (1) straightforward basic trackers, (2) meticulous data collectors, and (3) advisory-oriented self-trackers. These usage types differ regarding the data they register, the algorithmic feedback they retrieve, and their conversational levels about parameters tracked. Our findings suggest that overall maternal well-being – in terms of confidence, stress, and self-worth – remains largely unaffected by different self-tracking usage. However, when considering only the mothers’ confidence concerning breastfeeding, breastfeeding self-efficacy is lower among those most engaged in tracking and higher among those least engaged with it. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of whether breastfeeding trackers enhance or undermine mothers’ confidence in their breastfeeding abilities relative to the intensity of their self-tracking use. Thus, future research may include longitudinal designs to validate these findings and derive effective app-supported smartphone interventions for breastfeeding mothers.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T03:02:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-089b4312d9d740338b20a9a1cedb2da6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-5903 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T03:02:27Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | University of Zurich, IKMZ – Department of Communication and Media Research |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of Health Communication (EJHC) |
| spelling | doaj.art-089b4312d9d740338b20a9a1cedb2da62022-12-22T03:50:36ZengUniversity of Zurich, IKMZ – Department of Communication and Media ResearchEuropean Journal of Health Communication (EJHC)2673-59032022-09-013310.47368/ejhc.2022.304Digital MotherhoodNariman Sawalha0Veronika Karnowski1Department of Communication Studies and Media Research, LMU Munich, Germany Seminar of Media and Communication Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany Smartphone apps for self-tracking breastfeeding emerged as a popular tool among new mothers. Yet, we know little about how mothers use these apps and, most importantly, how self-tracking breastfeeding relates to maternal well-being. After surveying a sample of German mothers engaging with breastfeeding trackers (n = 234; recruited via an online access panel), we identified three types of self-tracking usage: (1) straightforward basic trackers, (2) meticulous data collectors, and (3) advisory-oriented self-trackers. These usage types differ regarding the data they register, the algorithmic feedback they retrieve, and their conversational levels about parameters tracked. Our findings suggest that overall maternal well-being – in terms of confidence, stress, and self-worth – remains largely unaffected by different self-tracking usage. However, when considering only the mothers’ confidence concerning breastfeeding, breastfeeding self-efficacy is lower among those most engaged in tracking and higher among those least engaged with it. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of whether breastfeeding trackers enhance or undermine mothers’ confidence in their breastfeeding abilities relative to the intensity of their self-tracking use. Thus, future research may include longitudinal designs to validate these findings and derive effective app-supported smartphone interventions for breastfeeding mothers. https://ejhc.org/article/view/3234self-trackingbreastfeedingmaternal well-beingdigital motherhoodmHealth |
| spellingShingle | Nariman Sawalha Veronika Karnowski Digital Motherhood European Journal of Health Communication (EJHC) self-tracking breastfeeding maternal well-being digital motherhood mHealth |
| title | Digital Motherhood |
| title_full | Digital Motherhood |
| title_fullStr | Digital Motherhood |
| title_full_unstemmed | Digital Motherhood |
| title_short | Digital Motherhood |
| title_sort | digital motherhood |
| topic | self-tracking breastfeeding maternal well-being digital motherhood mHealth |
| url | https://ejhc.org/article/view/3234 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT narimansawalha digitalmotherhood AT veronikakarnowski digitalmotherhood |