Media as a source of information on pregnancy and childbirth

Abstract

Media can have a powerful eff ect on women’s knowledge, beliefs and expectations about pregnancy and birth. Media can consist of movies,television programs and advertisements, magazines,and more, recently, the Internet. As providers of care to women, it’s important that we have an understanding of the sources of information women and their partners use to guide their expectations for their care and their role in making decisions. We should also be aware of the images, messages and information that media present to women about pregnancy and birth. In this issue’s “A Second Look” column, we examine two research reports focusing on media and pregnancy information—one focused on the Internet (Lagan, Sinclair, & Kernohan, 2010) and the other on television (Morris & McInerney, 2010); both looked at the influence these could have on information and images of childbirth.