Abstract
This article reports on and analyses data from a situated and in-depth project on the experiences of six cisgender South Asian-Australian women/people who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, negatively racialized women experienced barriers to health care and a lack of social support, which were further exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. International border closures in Australia combined with local mitigation strategies inhibited social and cultural support from families, impacting many migrant mothers/birthing people who gave birth for the first time in Australia. Many hospitals in the states of New South Wales and Victoria instituted restrictions to birthing services as a way of reducing exposure to the coronavirus during the pandemic. Our research suggests that pre-existing limitations of health care providers, digital platforms, and apps with regard to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women in Australia have been amplified during the pandemic. Online Facebook groups from the mothers’ countries of origin or cultural backgrounds, or for mothers who had babies due in the same month, represented a significant source of information and support for the participants. This was particularly important at a time when women’s capacities to engage in traditional cultural practices, which provide practical, emotional, and informational support, were compromised by the inability to garner familial support. We situate these findings in the literature on “performing good motherhood” in neoliberal times and via reliance on digital devices and platforms and what it means for CALD women’s sociality, sense of agency, and negotiations with cultural practices.
Introduction
This article is based on findings and analysis from a qualitative research project that the authors conducted in 2020–2021 with six South Asian-Australian women/people who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Australian context, this is of particular relevance as international borders were closed, with severe restrictions on travel both into and out of Australia from March 2020 to December 2021. The participants for this project were recruited via social media platforms, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. The research engaged in an in-depth exploration of new mothers’ perspectives and experiences of access to health care and support systems impacted by COVID-19-related restrictions. As detailed in the subsequent sections, our research suggests that factors such as social distancing, barriers to birthing and in-hospital services, international travel bans, and changes in local migration strategies resulted in curtailed medical, social, and cultural support for pregnant women and new mothers, particularly if they hailed from a migrant background and did not have access to the pre-COVID level of family and cultural support. Some of the challenges faced by pregnant women and new mothers are elaborated on in this article and build on findings in two emergent areas of research: (a) how women from culturally and linguistically diverse (or, CALD) backgrounds in the Australian context access online pregnancy and parenting support in the antenatal period; and (b) how access and cultural challenges for pregnant new mothers from these backgrounds were more acute during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The participants shared how limited access to face-to-face appointments with health care providers; having to attend the appointments without their partners, physical isolation, and mental stress; not being able to bring family members from their home countries; and missing out on cultural knowledge/practices around perinatal and postpartum care severely impacted their experience of pregnancy and childbirth during COVID-19. As a result, most participants relied heavily on online and virtual support ranging from video/phone calls with family members and health care providers, pregnancy-related apps, social media groups, and credible websites. They demonstrated agency in seeking social, cultural, and medical support. At the same time, they were constrained in doing so due to gender normative roles (also replicated and reinforced in app design and the forums in online mothers’ groups).
Digital Pregnancy and Parenthood as a New Site of Self-Tracking and the Performance of Gendered Care
In an era of proliferating smartphone use and app development, it is no surprise that this usage has also come to dominate the realm of health care, pregnancy, and early parenthood. The concerns that pervade the commercialization of health services and the loss of privacy that accompanies increased surveillance through commercial apps are themes that similarly dominate research on pregnancy and parenting apps. At the same time, there is more nuanced, culturally specific, and situated research now emerging on these apps that sheds light on how they are both embedded in social practice and shape it. For instance, Barassi’s (2017) preliminary mapping of a range of apps designed for this purpose suggests that they are more than self-tracking technologies: “pregnancy apps cannot be essentialised as a unique set of ‘self-tracking’ technologies, but need to be understood as complex socio-technical environments, which are shaped by different cultural tensions and open-ended processes of social interaction, negotiation, and normativity” (p. 2). Furthermore, they argue that the information ecologies of these apps indicate the importance of an ethnographically grounded approach within a broader political and economic context (Barassi, 2017). Barassi’s research challenges common perceptions of users as naïve and finds that they are more likely to be savvy users who are “often aware of the cultural politics of technologies as well as of their political economy and find ways to circumvent them” (Barassi, 2017). It is in this vein that this article sets out to examine the geographically and temporally situated practices of a cohort of South Asian-Australian women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021 and who used pregnancy apps as well as other social media platforms for support.
Before proceeding to the specific context of the usage mentioned above, we situate our research in the literature on online pregnancy and early parenting support more generally, and the emergence of apps for these purposes more recently. In their work on establishing a taxonomy of pregnancy apps, Thomas and Lupton (2016) have grouped the vast majority of them into three main categories. These include apps for entertainment, for pregnancy and fetal monitoring, and finally for pregnancy-related information (Thomas & Lupton, 2016, p. 498). They add that some apps in the last category of information also “provided women with access to online forums in which to connect to other pregnant women” (Thomas & Lupton, 2016, p. 498), and this aspect is salient for the cohort examined here and their usage. Also of significance is their categorization of the affective dimension of these apps, which indicates pregnancy to be either a highly risky state that needs careful management or a “site of pleasure” that warrants enjoyment and entertainment (Thomas & Lupton, 2016, p. 499). Despite these apparent differences in the large number of pregnancy apps, most were targeted at women or the birthing parent, with very few in existence for prospective fathers. Moreover, the apps directed at both had gendered expectations, and this is a noteworthy feature that warrants further attention across distinct user cohorts.
Recent literature on pregnancy and infancy apps also unpacks their relationship with the performance of gendered care and responsibility. This is an important underlying context to consider before we go on to examine and analyze the findings from our study. According to Leaver (2017), while surveillance still exists in the design of these apps, it has been justified for users by re-situating it as a necessary culture of care. This means that “the combination of datafication, the centrality of affect, and intimate surveillance are normalizing the idea that digital surveillance of infants equates with care and good parenting” (Leaver, 2017). Leaver (2017) and Johnson (2014) suggest that centralizing affect and care in this way changes the discursive construction of these apps and related tools and devices such that they become part of the “responsibilization” of motherhood and the performance of the same on social media. Such responsibilization positions maternal subjects as “ideal patients” or ideal neoliberal maternal subjects (De Souza, 2014), making them even more responsible for self-care and the care of the fetus and newborn than what neoliberal health care systems already anticipate. As Johnson (2014) puts it, these expert patients are “expected to adopt a highly reflexive, intentional and carefully researched orientation to the consumer market catering to pregnancy and parenting” (p. 331). The intersection of the maternal subject and the expert patient also means that particular ideologies of mothering are promoted through responsibilization. According to Johnson (2014), this phenomenon is not merely neoliberal in the sense of being focused on the self, but it is also about “responsibilisation of the self-for-others,” which implies the ideology of intensive mothering, one that suggests that “mothers must do everything possible, including self-sacrifice, for the sake of their children” (p. 332). As will be explored later in this article, an intensification of intensive mothering took place in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was marked by further isolation from support systems and greater reliance on apps and social media for answering queries and emotional sustenance.
The performative/evaluative aspects of pregnancy and parenting apps become apparent when information from these platforms is shared on personal social media sites to provide evidence of responsible or ideal motherhood. At the same time, performativity is built into these apps as they suggest “a specific way of producing (self-)knowledge of the pregnant body and offer ways in which women can understand or define their pregnancies and/or mothering practices” (Johnson, 2014, p. 333). This self-knowledge also means that women are encouraged to discipline themselves by monitoring themselves and benchmarking their behavior against the prenatal norms that they are exposed to on the apps. Performativity during pregnancy and early parenthood are most visibly manifest on social media platforms like Instagram, and especially in the accounts of “micro-celebrity parents” who are viewed as trend-setters in normalizing new parenting practices. According to Leaver (2017), these parents are successful in doing so because “the combination of a specific focus on parenting and seeming authenticity of their voices situates parental micro-celebrities as affective amplifiers, having significant influence at a time when new parents in particular are seeking information and direction online.” In this sense, affect becomes an important driver of where expectant and new parents seek “information” and why. This centrality of affect also explains the popularity of online mothering groups, which may not solely exchange medically-sound information and advice. Instead, their value comes from “continued sharing and engagement” (Leaver, 2017). As will be underscored in the following sections, social media platforms supported South-Asian Australian pregnant women and new mothers through their sharing functions, and some also specifically sought apps with forums that exist for this (affective) reason.
Project Background
The research project was conducted as a partnership between universities situated in two capital cities in Australia in 2020–2021. We obtained ethics approval from the relevant university research ethics committee at the outset, and the research had the following aims:
Understanding how COVID-19 impacted on first- and second-generation migrant South Asian-Australian women’s pregnancy and early parenthood experiences.
Exploring women’s access to social networks (family or friends) in Australia during COVID.
Mapping how different information sources were used to inform, which pregnancy/parenting apps were used, and how these compared with information from health care providers.
Investigating tensions and negotiations between information from the apps, parenting philosophies and practices from the culture of origin, and other support networks and posts on social media.
This small-scale study therefore aimed to contribute to a technology-mediated understanding of the experiences of maternity for new migrant mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article here focuses on online spaces of various kinds, including apps, websites, and parental communities that were highlighted by the participants as essential to their well-being during this time. As such, it considers these online sites to be “dynamic assemblages” (Veazey, 2021) that are sites of social practice rather than being informed by a technologically-determinist approach.
In rationalizing this research, we envisaged multi-pronged benefits to a project such as this which sheds light on the usefulness of pregnancy and parenting apps, as well as other forms of online parental support during the pandemic. It also provides an indicative glimpse of the resourcefulness and specific needs of women from South Asian and CALD backgrounds who faced additional challenges if they were pregnant and/or giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Australia, South Asian–origin communities demonstrate statistical, political, and economic significance. The 2021 Census reveals that “Chinese” and “Indian” are the most reported ancestries after the UK and Australia. There is also a significant increase in migration from other countries in South Asia, such as Nepal and Bangladesh. With Australia’s increasing strategic connections with these countries in the world’s economic and/or political affairs, it is foreseeable that the scale of South Asian communities will keep expanding. Despite this growing size and importance, recent research indicates that little is known about these communities’ lower utilization of health services and higher risks of chronic diseases, which pose a continuing challenge for the monocultural Australian health care system (Adhikari et al., 2021). For those in this population that undergo pregnancy and childbirth, most of the research is confined to the medical field and studies recommending extra monitoring for stillbirth rather than prioritizing women’s agency (Flenady et al., 2020). Given this context, the present study sought to avoid using a deficit lens in the framing of interview questions while being cognisant of COVID-induced absences in participants’ lives at the same time.
Methods and Participants
In the qualitative research project examined for this article, semi-structured interviews were used to understand the experiences of South Asian-Australian women who were pregnant and gave birth in Australia during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic when international border closures and hospital visitor restrictions (among other rules) were in place across Australian states and territories. Individual in-depth interviews allowed for engaged discussion on the topics of pregnancy and birth. Online interviews were conducted because of changing COVID-19 isolation and lockdown guidelines, which included physical distancing and other restrictions that necessitated the use of remote methods, primarily via a secure online “face-to-face” platform (e.g., Zoom or Microsoft Teams). Members of the research team interviewed six South Asian-Australian women for approximately 60 minutes each. Participants were recruited through social media platforms and online mothers’ groups using flyers disseminated via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Note that these flyers were circulated via the personal social media accounts of the research team members, as well as through posts on relevant groups or networks related to South Asian countries, mothering communities, and area-specific online communities (such as parts of Sydney and Melbourne with a high critical mass of migrants from South Asia). Selected participants met all four of the following inclusion criteria: adult migrants from a South Asian background (including the South Asian diaspora in countries like Singapore and Fiji); resident in a capital city in Australia; have given birth during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia (i.e., March 2020 onwards), which includes women who may have fallen pregnant before or after the pandemic began, as well as those who may not have progressed to full-term but had a live birth; and have used, or are continuing to use, a smartphone app for pregnancy and/or parenting.
As noted in the table above, all participants were of South Asian origin and first-generation migrants to Australia, with all but one having arrived in the last 5–10 years. They all had experience in the Australian workplace and were conversant in English. The two software/IT engineers in the group had the highest digital literacy and were unsurprisingly the most prolific users of pregnancy apps and other social media platforms/groups pertaining to pregnancy and early parenthood. Most of them were also using messaging and video calling apps to stay in touch with family overseas, and two participants mentioned the use of cloud storage to share recipes and pictures with family members. The participants do not represent all South Asian nations and are relatively affluent given their professional background and digital literacy. Given this, the sample may not be representative, but the individual stories nonetheless highlight the variations in maintaining cultural practices and reliance on the social aspects of the digital media available to the South Asian–origin birthing parents in Australia during COVID-19 lockdowns (which coincided with pregnancy or the early months of parenthood for all of them).
Interview questions began with pre-COVID experience of living in Australia (such as how long, where, professional backgrounds, personal living situation), followed by more focused queries about pregnancy and antenatal services during COVID-19; reliance on apps, online groups, and video calling platforms for connecting with others and obtaining information during lockdowns; maintenance or not of postnatal cultural rituals in the absence of family members (as international borders were closed); emotional well-being as new mothers during COVID and whether technology had assisted with that; and any other views or observations regarding their use of apps and social media platforms during this period as well as what could have been better in terms of their design or sense of community.
Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed by the project research assistant. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Codes were generated with the assistance of NVivo software and collated into themes that were refined through an iterative process by the authors.
The coding process was based largely on the semi-structured interview questions list and topics as discussed earlier. Codes were selected as per participant responses and around eight broad categorizations related to the research study. For questions related to impacts of COVID-19 on pregnancy and the early parenthood experience, most participant responses entailed them recounting interactions with the health care system (Code 1), available medical services and appointments, how they were attended by health care workers, and the changes they had to make as a result of social distancing. Other responses related to impacts of COVID-19 were centered around support from family and friends and its consequence for pregnant women and new mothers (Code 2). Disruptions in support from health care system and families increased the dependence on apps (Code 3), mothers’ groups (Code 4), and online platforms (Code 5). More discussions around cultural practices and rituals of care (Code 6) provided insights into connection with cultural community (Code 7) and food practices (Code 8).
All three authors engaged in this research hail from a CALD background and have extensive experience of working with culturally diverse communities. They have worked with women participants and in feminist/gender-focused research and practice spaces for a significant period of time. In their respective projects and research experiences, they have continued to explore and write about culturally diverse values and its importance in knowledge-production processes. They have also focused on reframing methods and best practices that highlight the particularity of women’s issues and incorporate ethics involving cultural safety, thereby making research safe for participants.
One of the authors gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic and drew upon their own experience and familiarity with the issue, including the use of social media as a new mother. They have been part of many of the online support groups for migrant mothers that regularly discuss the cultural values pertinent to childbirth and parenting. This experience sensitized them to the themes of the research and contributed to a “reflexive” thematic analysis of the interview transcripts (Braun & Clarke, 2022).
Context: Why Study the Use of Apps and Online Support by South Asian-Australian Birthing Women During COVID-19?
The perinatal period is both exciting and stressful for new parents, marking a time of transitions and the desire for new information, as well as sources of support. Social and cultural rituals play a key part in navigating this transition to parenthood (De Souza, 2007). Birthing in the context of a global pandemic, with limited access to social support and health services which are under unprecedented pressure, meant that the cultural, informational, and support needs of particular groups of birthing people were disrupted, affecting the wellbeing of the entire family. Therefore, attention to both formal and informal social support systems is critical (Alhomaizi et al., 2021). According to public health research, social support is a critical enabler of perinatal wellbeing and the transition to parenthood for women. It can reduce parental anxiety and stress and reduce the need for interventions (Jago et al., 2020).
Migrant mothers comprise a group with unique needs, which were exacerbated during the lockdown periods of the pandemic. These include being less familiar with available health and social services and being separated from familial sources of support due to prolonged international border closures in the Australian context. Many COVID-19-mitigation strategies transformed routines and reduced mobility, socializing, and service utilization, complicating the experiences and expectations of the perinatal period for pregnant and birthing women. Even though the perinatal period is a time when health support is generally more available than in other times in a lifespan, there is evidence that digital technologies including apps and social media platforms providing access to online parental communities are necessary assemblages of support (De Souza et al., 2021). As Veazey (2020) observes, the emergence of a personalized media landscape represents dynamic assemblages of support and identification rather than being “virtual ghettoes” (Komito & Bates, 2009).
The project examined and analyzed here shares the complex nature of negotiations between the cultural politics of technologies such as apps and online platforms and their users from South Asian-Australian backgrounds, a sub-group within the category of CALD (the term used in Australian policy and service settings to address non-Anglo migrant communities). These users also likely have to navigate the different terrains of pregnancy- and parenting-related information from their cultures of origin and knowledge received in the form of “medical expertise” from health care providers in Australia. The project contributes to a growing body of scholarly work about the use of pregnancy apps among women from CALD backgrounds in Australia (De Souza et al., 2021; Greenstock et al., 2012; Hughson et al., 2018; Smith et al., 2017) and evidencing of a heightened level of anxiety among first-time mothers who gave birth during COVID-19 (Rhodes et al., 2020). It also contributes to emerging research about the value of apps and relevant social media platforms in the perinatal period (Rhodes et al., 2020), particularly for CALD women who did not have access to family support due to international border closures during 2020 and 2021.
What makes this group of women a worthwhile subject of study, then, is the racialized intensification of already intensive mothering practices during the pandemic, as well as their own agency in navigating these complexities in online environments. Technological reliance was heightened and only partially made up for the lack of in-person health care and family support. What also potentially took place is a race-specific (and gendered) amplification of absences in social media communities, particularly in ethnicity-specific mothering groups on Facebook which was countered through informal, agentic support among the members.
Findings: Use of Apps, Platforms, and Websites
The in-depth interviews provide an indicative picture of an ecosystem of support found through pregnancy and parenting apps, Facebook groups for mothers (ethnicity-specific as well as place-based), virtual hospital classes, video-based digital platforms for communicating with family members resident overseas, and the websites of approved health care service providers. At the same time, the interviews highlight the differences between each of these platforms, the specificity of use, the importance of context, and amplification of their usage at particular times in the perinatal period for this group of women. The findings detailed in the following sections raise questions about whether this new online village has replaced the conventional “village” assumed to help raise a child during COVID-19, or whether the two are more seamlessly combined than previously assumed. They also address the advantages as well as drawbacks of predominantly relying on online forms of local and transnational care at a time when familial support and its attendant cultural and material affordances were not available to any of our participants.
Digital/Social Media and the Absence of Cultural Support
Our research found that the pandemic had an impact on how women engaged in traditional cultural practices which are thought to provide practical, emotional, and informational support for mothers and reduce the risk of postnatal depression. Examples include Seemantham (Tamil Nadu and Kerala by Hindus) and Garbha sanskar (Ayurveda). These rituals that are primarily designed to enable postpartum recovery depend on access to female relatives or caregivers. However, this was limited by the inability for families to travel to Australia, or even between households in the states of Victoria and New South Wales.
Participants in the study who spoke about their inherited expectations of South Asian cultures meant that typically care work and support is provided during pregnancy by mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters, and sisters-in-law. They contribute not only in terms of their experience as mothers but also by being physically involved in taking care of the pregnant woman or the new mother and the newborn. They provide care including that of older children, managing household work, cooking and preparing specific food items for the new mother and the newborn, and regular massages for the pregnant women and new mothers. These physical forms of family care and support became impossible with COVID travel restrictions.
. . . it literally felt like I’m just alone here. I need help, I need support, I need support—Ambar. when I had my first daughter in 2012 I had my family here. It was a huge difference. This time I couldn’t have anyone—Pakhi.
Ambar and Pakhi talked about feeling anxious and nervous in the absence of family support (i.e., family other than their spouses). Ambar described how she felt extremely lonely being here in Australia all by herself. She said she might have downloaded the app if she was in Pakistan with her sisters and mother, “but might not have used the app so much because she would have had that ‘cushion’ around her.” this is my first child so I think I had all these plans around what that was going to be like—how that was going to go, you know? Like, mum would be here, we would do the whole confinement, I would get rest, someone just caring for the mother as equally as caring for the newborn, that whole concept, that whole cultural concept. So all of that, that was really hard to miss out on so I really struggled with the last few months of my pregnancy—Nalini
In the excerpt above, Nalini associates the presence of her mother in the period just after giving birth as not only providing material comforts such as rest to the new mother but also describes its cultural significance (such as through the rest period called “confinement”—see the study by Benza & Liamputtong, 2014). In the absence of in-person family support, apps and online platforms for new mothers became spaces of care and support during COVID-19 lockdowns. Many women relied on online support groups and apps for tips on pregnancy and parenting, as well as forms of online socializing, although for different purposes. In addition to regular video and phone calls to family members far away (as will be detailed later in this section), most participants experienced a sense of online/virtual community and support with mothers in Australia who were going through similar circumstances and experiences. However, in relation to cultural practices and negotiations, women’s experiences remained particular to their own cultural and familial traditions, and it was mostly families that were consulted on cultural aspects of pregnancy and childbirth. This, in many ways, determined the nature of reliance and the use of pregnancy apps and digital and social media platforms by new mothers during COVID-19.
Old and New Cultural Practices and the Role of Digital Media
Women undertook traditional perinatal cultural rituals to varying degrees, depending on their own values and beliefs. A common tradition was to eat special food reflecting the unique status of the postpartum body. Nalini missed foods from Singapore, which also made her miss her family. However, her sister had compiled a confinement recipe book from family and friends and made it available in a Google drive folder. Her cousins in Singapore made a schedule that Nalini could adapt.
Varsha missed her family in the first 6 weeks after giving birth as she had no practical help other than meals, and she and her husband were, in their own words, “fumbling along.” However, enacting these rituals depended heavily on family members being around to assist. Nalini felt guilty and like she was disappointing her family overseas by not preparing the appropriate foods she was supposed to eat postpartum. She had also hoped to have a 6-week confinement period postpartum (that is part of many cultures in South Asia), but the pandemic prevented her mother and other extended family from traveling to help her with that. The extensive involvement of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on a regular basis, especially with newborns, is also a significant part of the cultural milieu in most of South Asia. Hence, reliance on regular video calls and online interactions between new mothers, newborns, and the immediate and extended family was a recurring coping mechanism shared by many participants. Some people were able to continue traditional practices using digital technologies; for example, Muskan’s father-in-law gave the Muslim call to prayer (Azaan) to her baby through Facetime.
Some parents decided to evaluate passed-down cultural knowledge and choose practices that would work for them by undertaking their own research. For instance, Varsha and her husband researched and carefully considered the advice they had been given by their mother and mother-in-law. Both Varsha and Muskan researched baby-led weaning as a practice for their babies—this was an alternative to some traditional notions of feeding, and they consciously wanted to avoid anxious parenting around food that they had seen in their extended families. For some, resistance to some rituals was enabled through pandemic social practices, especially during lockdowns with enforced social distancing. Ambar was happy to not have to go out in lieu of the lockdown, as she could now protect herself and her baby from the “evil eye” (a cultural belief across many parts of South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America that is concerned with the protection of the newborn and the mother during the early days after childbirth). She also found that most Eurocentric pregnancy and new parent apps in the market did not take into account different cultural beliefs, such as the importance of the first 14 days after birth. In the Australian context, midwives advocated walking and moving rather than rest. In response to similar concerns, Nalini found that she could search Indian mothers’ Facebook groups for the culturally-specific information about the perinatal period that she wanted.
Apps for Tracking and Sociality
Most participants used pregnancy apps for tracking the progress of their fetus. Early parenting apps assisted with counting nappies and feeds, seeking information on forums, watching informative videos, and sometimes finding other local new mothers to connect with. This is in line with Johnson’s (2014) finding regarding women’s use of apps and agency as “apps in particular are claimed to be empowering technologies which enable women to take control of their experiences and while doing so, this enables them to more efficiently enact the expert patient role” (p. 346). All participants in the present study also reported greater reliance on these apps due to pandemic or lockdown conditions during the perinatal period. While apps and social media platforms are more generally used by mothers and mothers-to-be to delegate responsibility for “certain calculations, reminders and tasks” in the era of intensive mothering (Johnson, 2014, p. 346), this is arguably more so the case when other physical support networks are minimized or completely absent.
All the participants in this study had downloaded BabyCenter, which they used for weekly updates during their pregnancies. Some also preferred this app to others because its member forums were more conversational than articles and videos. Specific apps were used during the early parenting stage. For example, Pakhi mentioned that she used the free version of an app called “Little Ones,” as it contains videos on what to expect around sleep and other facets of the baby’s life at various stages of development.
Two of the participants used an app called “Peanut” which is specifically designed to help meet other new mothers in one’s local area. While Muskan struggled with Peanut as she wanted to meet like-minded mothers rather than make small talk, Varsha succeeded in finding a new mother friend through this app. She was still connected to her new friend at the time of the interview, and they were both part of a group undertaking baby-led weaning.
Online Groups for Information and Support
The women interviewed for the project (all barring one) also used online mothers’ groups hosted on social media platforms such as Facebook. Their membership of these groups entailed that they could peruse posts about seeking general baby-related information, information on culturally specific perinatal practices, finding information when friends and health care providers were not available, and feeling a sense of community in certain groups. Even before the onset of COVID and related restrictions and lockdowns, smartphones were being used extensively by new mothers in particular as extensions of their social lives (Johnson, 2014, p. 337). This was especially the case with mums checking for events related to their mothers’ groups or to ask questions about their baby (Johnson, 2014, p. 337). Given the heightened sense of isolation and being house bound during the pandemic, it is no surprise that reliance on online mothering groups was high.
In the present study, the information gathered from these groups in particular was perceived as coming in handy when advice from one’s own family could not be accessed, or as pre-knowledge for baby milestones and concerns. For instance, when Varsha’s baby fell from the bed, she did panic but managed to recover because she had already read in one of her online mothers’ groups that she was meant to monitor him for 24 hours and take him to the GP if needed. Pakhi cited an example of when a mother in an online group had a particular issue late at night, posted on the group seeking help, and Pakhi suggested they download the “My Emergency Doctor” app, which had come in very handy for her in a prior situation of this kind. Nalini said that while she joined breastfeeding groups, one for Melbourne mothers and several others, she rarely posted on them as she was worried that her questions or posts might err from the “Australian way” of doing things. Nonetheless, she stayed in them for the informational benefits. This also enabled her to pick and choose information that was culturally appropriate for her context. This work of “sifting” through information comprises the labor many migrant mothers in particular undertake as they navigate through different knowledge systems, both traditional and in their new countries while managing the risk of offending different authority figures (De Souza, 2007).
Video Chats for Family
Video-based digital platforms were used by all the participants for daily chats with family. The platforms cited as ideal for these were WhatsApp and FaceTime. Some interviewees also reported sharing pictures regularly with family using a social media platform or digital service such as iCloud. These online services were widely reported as helping with “survival,” being a “savior,” and changing their views on screen time for babies. Only one woman mentioned explicitly seeking baby-related cultural advice from her mother and mother-in-law. According to Muskan: My mom still calls every day. I think in the 365 days of Sahara’s life, she has probably called 360 times at least. She still calls her every day. Sahara recognizes her voice from the other room, like she’ll come running to look at her on FaceTime. So I think that like absolutely helps to survive.
At the same time, Varsha acknowledged the pressure of daily WhatsApp video chats with family when her days were very busy with a new baby. Pakhi felt that although it is advisable to not allow any screen time to children under two, she could not avoid her baby seeing the faces of her grandparents on the phone during video calls as that was her only connection to them.
These findings regarding transnational familial connections echo the practices of Polish mothers in Finland who used digital technologies to perform emotional transnationalism (Kędra, 2021, p. 2893). While there is extensive literature on the performance of transnational care in migrant families, it is of note in the context of the present study as the COVID-19 lockdowns constituted a moment of disruption for what would have otherwise been face-to-face and more immediate care for the birthing parents and the newborn by immediate family members. The emotional transnationalism in this instance was not chosen, and hence constitutes an important site to understand the agency (and constraints) of new migrant mothers.
Miscellaneous Online Support
In terms of other kinds of online support, platforms like Instagram reels were also mentioned for pregnancy and childbirth-related information by one of the participants. Other online sources mentioned included the websites of reputable health care services such as the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) and the Raising Children Network, as the latter were considered more trustworthy than personal blogs or accounts by at least two of the participants.
Limitations of Online Support
As outlined earlier, the women that were interviewed spent time on apps and online platforms learning about pregnancy and parenting. These engagements helped them deal with emotional and psychological distress and anxiety. However, they also shared that apps could not replace family care and support. In Muskan’s words: I don’t think anything can take the place of your mom or your sister or your friend going over to stay and cooking for you or just holding the baby while you shower. You know, I don’t think any app can do that.
Some women also discussed how it was not just the non-physical/virtual limitation of the apps, but also the absence of cultural references or experiences that contributed to limitations. Hence, most participants relied on long video chats and WhatsApp calls back home to their mothers and sisters, in addition to connecting virtually with women in Australia—both from Australia and those belonging to culturally diverse groups.
Even during my pregnancy, because I’m very petite and very short, so I was a bit skeptical about different phases and how the baby will grow. So I was constantly talking to my GP and things like that. At one stage, they told me the baby isn’t growing. It was basically because I was very small and probably he was all folded up. But then—and the standards here are for Aussie babies, right? They don’t really match Indian babies. Indian babies are really small otherwise, as well. And considering myself, I was like this is a problem. But then from what they told me, it looked like it was a bigger problem. Then I googled—Google is like I don’t know what, but Google was telling me it could lead to Down Syndrome and things like that, so I was really—I went into a depression kind of thing for two weeks until the main results came in. So I called my sister [who is a medical doctor in India] at that moment and I asked for her reports. Because I wanted to compare, from Indian charts, what exactly—how the growth is. So that’s when I consulted her as well, and I asked for the reports and I measured; OK, looks similar. Probably just a normal thing. Because here I feel they’re more concerned at every point—Varsha.
As evident from the aforementioned interview excerpt from participant Varsha, online information was not adequate and not culturally tailored in the case of the measurements of her fetus. In this instance, seeking support from her sister who is a medical doctor in India was not confined to moral or emotional assistance but in fact extended to asking for culturally-relevant medical expertise. In other words, online information and communication did play a role in reassuring Varsha, but notably, she sought reassurance from someone she trusts (i.e., her sister who is also a medical expert) rather than a generic information site. This finding regarding trust in the expertise of one’s immediate circle is also borne out in Veazey’s (2022) work on migrant motherhood wherein she found that they “make use of the professional knowledge residing in their personal networks” (p. 205). The role of expertise (and associated understanding of who’s expertise matters) in the agency of new migrant mothers is relatively under-explored and merits further attention, including in how they whet the advice offered on online forums. Relatedly, how these mothers themselves turn into experts over time and offer advice on forums when queries about pregnancy and early parenthood are posted could be delved into further to explore shifts in (gendered) agency.
Discussion: Foregrounding Cultural Safety and Agency
Findings from the small-scale study outlined earlier contribute to the growing literature on pregnancy and parenting apps and their ideological and affective implications. They gesture toward a need to invest in further, more expansive and in-depth research into the experiences of CALD women in Australia. This has become especially pertinent since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in new parents being isolated from their support networks and more reliant on online forms of care.
With regards to the use of apps for a range of monitoring tasks as well as for pleasure in this study, this is also borne out in previous research which sees these apps as located between anticipation and risk (Hamper & Nash, 2021, p. 587). While the participants in our research study did not speak at length about when they felt it was “safe” to download and use a pregnancy app, they did perceive the forums as a “safe place” to seek reassurance either through browsing or posting their own queries. This finding also echoes Gibson and Hanson’s (2013) work with new mothers which found that the “potential for the internet to provide a safe place to ask embarrassing questions is a powerful form of support” (p. 316). The safety of these forums can also be attributed to the fact that women found it reassuring to (virtually) encounter others who were in a similar situation or facing similar issues. In other words, increasing their health literacy (Bailey et al., 2022, p. 8) is only one of many reasons women are attracted to the apps throughout their pregnancy and early parenthood. In our study, this safe space also had a cultural dimension as demonstrated by the five out of six participants who joined an ethnicity-specific online mothering group. They all indicated that that these groups were an important and non-judegemental source of culturally-relevant information about foods and postpartum practices in the absence of overseas-based family members.
Among the most frequently recounted benefits of social media and the agency it endowed on women both during the pandemic and before, it is that it allows for a self-construction of the pregnancy and early parenthood experience beyond medical discourses. As mentioned in the findings section previously, this was the case in the present study where South Asian–origin women made their own choices about sharing pictures, deciding which groups to join, filtering or sifting information from various sources, and especially striking a balance between medical “expertise” and culturally-inflected advice. Tiidenberg and Baym (2017) argue that since women are surrounded by social, familial, and mediated discourses telling them “how to do pregnancy right,” social media has given them a rare opportunity and platform for “the self-construction of pregnancy” (p. 1). In a similar vein, having access to “expert” parenting websites that are preferably non-commercial has been seen as giving agency to new mothers and parents in the production of knowledge. Madge and O’Connor conducted research into the “Babyworld” website in the UK before smartphone apps were launched. Through their ethnographic observation and interview with women using this website, they found that, “Rather than by ‘trickling-down’ institutionally produced knowledge from the ‘experts,’ the development of community discourse enabled the women to determine what constituted knowledge within their own community” (Madge & O’Connor, 2006, p. 208). This resistance to top-down forms of knowledge, however temporary and fragmented, still constituted an important feature of social media groups and forums in apps for the participants in the study. In the case of the South Asian women, such resistance also sometimes took the form of resisting some of the postpartum practices discussed in Australian mothers’ groups and preferred by midwives, such as being physically active soon after giving birth rather than having a period of “confinement” and rest.
Despite the benefits of online spaces for pregnant women and new mothers detailed above, it has also been noted that the gendered and caring relations that exist in the offline world are simply reproduced in these sites. This was also the case in the study under consideration in this article as it was only the birthing partner/woman who had downloaded apps and mentioned participating in online mothering communities. Other research has found that migrant fathers’ roles expanded in the absence of extended family (De Souza, 2014), but our research did not explicitly explore this. There was only one case (participant Muskan) where the father was the primary carer and had taken parental leave to look after their infant. Longhurst’s (2013) research on mothers with older children also found that while the Internet enables child–mother–grandmother relations to stretch over longer distances and different time zones and to continue intimate and familial relationships long after children have left the parental home, it does not necessarily change existing gender roles and relations (p. 666).
This finding means that while online mothering practices and activities like knowledge production and exchange give agency to women, they may not fundamentally change social norms about who should care and how.
An important way in which social networking sites help transcend gendered expectations is in cases where they help new mothers preserve and extend their identity beyond motherhood. For instance, Gibson and Hanson (2013) recount that using social networking sites such as Facebook enabled the women participating in their research to post and share their thoughts (emphasis on their as it was stressed that they wanted to share based on what made them unique such as interests they had or a quirky sense of humour and NOT a baby diary with daily photos of the infant) (p. 318).
For many of these women, Facebook was also a popular means to “maintain some form of awareness of the world outside their front door” (Gibson & Hanson, 2013: p. 319). In the study we have described and analyzed, the South Asian–origin mothers did not explicitly mention using social media or apps to connect to the outside world once they gave birth. However, two of the six returned to work within the first year of giving birth and looked at this aspect of their identity in a positive light.
Most importantly, both existing research and the study here highlight the continuation of ideologies and practices of good mothering/parenting in online spaces before and during the pandemic. This may have particular implications for women who are racialized and physically distant from their support networks where online sharing can take on greater frequency and meaning. Kumar and Schoenebeck (2015) found that “sharing baby photos on Facebook helps new mothers enact and receive validation of ‘good mothering’” at the same time as they are charged with protecting their children’s online identities (p. 1302). Similarly, knowledge gained via apps was also deployed to demonstrate “good parenting” by the South Asian–origin women in our study in that they were considered and reflective about the choices they were making in relation to the information they accessed online. According to Hamper and Nash (2021), we live in an era where there is a ubiquity of prenatal images, and normative emphasis on knowledge is perceived as fundamental to “good parenting” (p. 593). By the same token, “not knowing” is assumed to be a lack rather than an alternative experience of pregnancy (Hamper & Nash, 2021: p. 593). While the South Asian-Australian participants in our study did not actively use the terminology of “good parenting,” they all demonstrated this through their everyday practices such as seeking advice from multiple sources, monitoring screentime, browsing forums to be aware of issues before they arose, and being conscious of the platforms they used to share baby pictures.
Most studies of apps to date also address what birthing women see as potential improvements to their professional design and sociality functions. The most recent of this research by Lazarevic et al. (2023) reports that participants wanted the new features in an ideal pregnancy app, such as including information from experts, monitoring tools, and personalized feedback on progress made toward goals (p. 51). In a similar vein, an earlier Australia study found that “women wanted ‘clinically endorsed’ apps linked to trustworthy websites,” while another noted that women want apps and other digital media to provide more readily available access to expert professional information (Hughson et al., 2018, p. 6). For the social aspects of apps, most studies reveal that women believe these could be further enhanced (Bailey et al., 2022, p. 9). In our study, sociality emerged as an important theme, although there were individual differences in how this was approached and what degree of socialization was desired. Only one participant used the “Peanut” app to meet locally-based like-minded mothers, while the others were content with using online forums for emotional and informational support. It is possible that lockdown restrictions impacted their decisions to safely meet with others.
Finally, what remains a glaring gap in the research on the use of pregnancy and parenting apps and related online media by women is the particular needs and experiences of women from CALD backgrounds, especially in the Australian context. This is despite the fact that even in 2013, almost a quarter of the women giving birth were born outside Australia and identified as being from a CALD community (Hughson et al., 2018, p. 4). Most of the existing research points out their specific needs in terms of a lack of multilingual apps (Hughson et al., 2018, p. 4) but largely fails to take a strengths-based approach, which also recognizes their agency in reaching out to informal culturally inflected networks. Others like Hamper and Nash (2021) have also foregrounded how “whiteness” is coded into ideas of “normal development” in most apps in the Global North (p. 589). In their participant group, one woman “raised the issue of ethnicity in commenting that the estimated sizes of fetuses and babies in apps were inaccurate for her because women of a Southeast Asian ‘cultural background’ tend to have smaller babies than the ‘Anglo population’” (Hamper & Nash, 2021, p. 589), echoing the observations of participant Varsha from the present research study. In terms of parenting advice websites in the UK, Madge and O’Connor (2006) note that these also tend to be white and heterosexual (p. 205). They add that this is because most of the images of babies and children are white and the parenting discussion forums include new parents, fathers, older parents, teenage and young parents, single parents, step families and working mums but no mention is made, for example, of lesbian or black families: other experiences of race and sexuality are “designed out” by omission (Madge & O’Connor, 2006, p. 205).
In our research, a similar experience was recounted by participant Nalini who felt embarrassed to ask questions in a local area online mother’s group for fear of being seen as too culturally different.
The research presented here, however limited in its scope, reinforces the pressing need for tailored information for birthing women from CALD backgrounds, particularly if they are relatively recent migrants with little familial support. A Short Messaging Service (SMS)-based maternal health information program found that the uptake and acceptability of a linguistically and culturally tailored program for Maori, Pacific, Asian, and South Asian families was high and improved access and support for the women (Chilukuri et al., 2015). In addition to providing more health care expert support through online means, there needs to be greater valuing of intergenerational knowledge and emotional support in these communities by health systems and the broader maternity culture (Hughson et al., 2018, p. 5), and thereby account for their agency, cultural knowledge, and need for sociality in making decisions about their bodies and their babies. This message is clearly borne out by the findings and analysis of the present study: even in pandemic conditions, South-Asian Australian mothers sought out the affective and practical support of their families via online video and messaging platforms, and that of local mothers from similar cultural backgrounds to seek additional help regarding access to medical services, as well as adapting dominant maternal cultural norms in their new homes.
Limitations
The women who took part in our study were already well connected with technology and digitally literate, and hence, they represent a unique sample which may not be entirely representative of women of South Asian backgrounds resident in Australia, or even of CALD women. The focus of this research, however, was to understand the reliance of migrant women on pregnancy and parenting apps and related online groups, sites, and platforms during a very specific time of need (i.e., international border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia). While this temporal specificity foregrounds high digital usage at a time of physical isolation from extended family and friends in other cities and countries, it also signals the amplification of already-existent inequalities and structural issues in the provision of perinatal care in Australia and comparable immigrant contexts. It should also be flagged that those not represented in our sample, such as women and birthing parents with lower digital literacy and English-speaking abilities, are likely to have been even more severely impacted during the lockdown periods.
To avoid selection bias and to ensure voluntary participation, the recruitment of participants was done via relevant online groups. We circulated the recruitment flyer on these groups and finalized the list of participants based on interested participants contacting us within a certain time frame. The screening was done to ensure the interested contacts met the participant criteria. In keeping with this process, we managed to recruit only a small number of participants. Our assumption is that given the sensitivity of this project and responsibilities of care and nurturance largely upon new mothers, time is likely to have been a constraint.
Conclusion
In the research study described and analyzed in this article, we set out to understand the perinatal experiences of South Asian-Australian women who were pregnant and gave birth in Australia in 2020–2021 when COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were in effect. This period is important in the Australian context as not only were vaccines not introduced till later in 2021 but also because Australia’s international borders were largely closed, only allowing emergency travel. Given this specificity, we were particularly keen to examine the women’s use of pregnancy and parenting apps, and their reliance on online mothering groups as well as digital platforms for connecting with overseas family members who would have otherwise been physically present during the birth and early months of parenthood. This study is situated in now well-established literature on neoliberal technologies and how they position mothers and birthing parents as even more responsible for their own care and that of their infants. However, as we also show in the subsequent analysis, the research on how women from CALD backgrounds are impacted by discourses of ideal motherhood, and how they negotiate these with maternal advice emanating from their cultures of origin, is still emergent.
Despite the participants in our study being adept with using WhatsApp groups, Facebook, instant messaging, and video calling to connect with family and friends, in-person family support and its associated sociality are reportedly missed by all of them. Many participants found culturally appropriate or birth-congruent peer support, validation, and information from other mothers through Instagram and Facebook groups to complement information from apps. However, despite their digital literacies, many found that the substitution of virtual care for face-to-face services during the pandemic left them with a less-than-satisfactory perinatal experience. This study provides unique insights to understanding the experiences of cisgender South Asian-Australian women during the pandemic, which may be relevant for other racialized groups. It also gives an indication of what aspects of the apps the women would like improved, such as access to health care expertise and more opportunities for social connection. Most importantly, it gives a glimpse into the culturally specific needs of South Asian-Australian women that were further amplified during the pandemic and that need further research from a strengths-based perspective that accounts for their agency and cultural knowledge.
Footnotes
Author Contribution Statements
All authors contributed to data collection and analysis, literature review, and drafting and editing the final submission.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research was funded and supported by Khorana’s WSU VC Fellow Seed funding, Khorana’s Scientia Fellowship at UNSW, and DeSouza’s VC Research Fellowship at RMIT.
Ethical Statement
Ethics approval was obtained from the RMIT Human Research Ethics Committee.
