A Tumblr thematic analysis of perinatal health: Where users go to seek support

Abstract

With the research sex gap impacting available data on women’s health and the growing popularity of social media, it is not rare that individuals will seek health-related information on such platforms. Understanding how women use social media for perinatal-specific issues is crucial to gain knowledge on specific needs and gaps. The Tumblr platform is an excellent candidate to further understand the representation and discourse regarding perinatal health on social media. The objective was to identify specific themes to assess the present discourse pertaining to perinatal health. Posts were collected using Tumblr’s official API client over a 4-day period, from August 18 to 21, 2023, inclusively. A sentiment analysis was performed using the Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner sentiment analysis toolkit and a deductive thematic analysis. In total, 235 posts were analyzed, and 11 individual categories were identified and divided into two main concepts; Women’s Health (Endometriosis; Postpartum Depression, Menopause, Miscarriage, Other Health Problems, Political Discourse) and Pregnancy/Childbirth (Maternal Mortality, Personal Stories, Pregnancy Symptoms, and Fitness/diet/weight). The last category was classified as Misinformation/Advertisement. Findings revealed that users used the Tumblr platform to share personal experiences regarding pregnancy, seek support from others, raise awareness, and educate on women’s health topics. Misinformation represented only 3% of the total sample. The present study demonstrates the feasibility of using in-depth data from Tumblr posts to inform us regarding current issues and topics specific to perinatal and women’s health. More research studies are needed to better understand the impact of social support and misinformation on perinatal health.

Keywords

• women’s health
• perinatal
• social media
• social support
• misinformation