Balancing social media use

Benefits

Potential benefits of social media for new or expectant parents:

• Reducing social isolation
• Sharing of experiences  
• Seeking information
• Feeling a sense of validation and reassurance
• Extra support

However, sometimes social media use may trigger feelings of sadness, anxiety, frustration or shame. There are many unrealistic portrayals of parenthood and significant misinformation about parenting within social media, so it's best to work out who are the more trusted, realistic resources and follow those.

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Risks

Risks and potential harms of social media for new or expectant parents:

• Exposure to distressing images of world events  
• Misinformation
• Feelings of inadequacy
• Unnecessary comparison to others
• Increased anxiety
• A skewed view of parenthood

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Strategies

For these reasons it may be helpful to restrict social media use to limited time frames or specific tasks during pregnancy or while in the early days of parenting. To decide when and how much exposure to social media is useful, they should try and notice how they feel after using it. If social media is having a negative effect, the new or expectant parent could phone or message someone supportive instead.  

It may be helpful to speak with a professional about strategies to manage social media use. For concerns or questions about the baby's health or a medical issue, seek advice and information from a health practitioner, rather than from online sources only.

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Other helpful resources

Blog: Navigating Social Media on the Parenthood Pathway

Article: The Dos and Don’ts of Social Media for Moms

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References

_{New parents’ Facebook use at the transition to parenthood. Bartholomew. 2012.}

_{Pregnant women sharing pregnancy-related information on Facebook: Web-based survey study. Harpel. 2018.‍}

_{Pew Research Centre}

_{Can social media influencers impact pregnancy and parenting? (news-medical.net)}

_{The impact of social media influencers on pregnancy, birth, and early parenting experiences: A systematic review. - ScienceDirect}