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- Title
Women, Pregnancy, and Health Information Online: The Making of Informed Patients and Ideal Mothers.
- Authors
Song, Felicia Wu; West, Jennifer Ellis; Lundy, Lisa; Smith Dahmen, Nicole
- Abstract
While the Internet has emerged as a significant resource for women negotiating the questions and circumstances that arise during conception, pregnancy and childbirth, it remains unclear what role the Internet plays in challenging the current biomedical paradigm and empowering women to make meaningful choices. This article explores how women use the Internet to manage their pregnancies and mediate their doctor–patient relationships, particularly examining the role of social class and personal health history in shaping such Internet use. Drawing from in-depth interviews with white middle-class mothers, the findings show that rather than using technology to resist the dominant biomedical paradigm, most women turned to online resources that affirmed mainstream medical authority and continued to rely on their doctors. By providing the means to confirm normalcy and take control in their reproductive experiences, the Internet enables socially privileged women to more fully perform the informed patient role in order to demonstrate their competence as mothers.
- Subjects
INTERNET &; women; HEALTH education -- Computer network resources; PREGNANCY; CHILDBIRTH; POWER (Social sciences); MASS media; MIDDLE class women; PHYSICIAN-patient relations; FEMINISM; MEDICALIZATION; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; COMPUTER network resources
- Publication
Gender & Society, 2012, Vol 26, Issue 5, p773
- ISSN
0891-2432
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/0891243212446336