The Internet Is Failing Moms-to-Be

They are yet another way the internet and America’s health care system are failing pregnant people.As a disinformation researcher, I study how people are manipulated online, so I was mentally prepared for the advertising blitz that would follow me from the Apple App Store and Google searches to my Facebook and Instagram feeds. The companies behind the apps caution users in long, inaccessible terms of service written in legalese that they are not a substitute for medical advice or care, however, the apps are still incredibly popular: In one 2016 study, at least 55 percent of participants used a pregnancy app to track and learn about their pregnancies, with first time-parents more likely to seek them out. Many are run by “lifestyle” companies, a fact borne out in the information they provide: A 2021 academic study surveyed 29 apps and found over 60 percent did not have comprehensive information for every stage of pregnancy and only 28 percent cited medical literature.From the very first interaction with one of these apps—usually a sign-up screen—it’s clear they don’t exist solely to help users through pregnancy. In those early days, when every mom-to-be carries the weight of one foreboding statistic—one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage in the first trimester—the apps are already encouraging users to plan ahead to the birth and arrival of their baby through ads that are difficult to differentiate from medical content. The routine use of this expensive process is not supported by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) for those without an established medical need, yet on pregnancy apps advertising it, Gunter says users are exposed to “availability bias. The ads follow me to social media, where I’m told I should buy a designer prenatal vitamin that costs three to four times as much as the drugstore variety, yet doesn’t include the folic acid necessary to prevent neural tube defects.We are a means to an end—a home for a growing baby; a caring, anxious, overjoyed bank account to be advertised to and manipulated.Even if credible information is presented separately from advertisements, in pregnancy apps or elsewhere, individuals have trouble distinguishing it. These apps are part of an internet and a broader society that is failing women, failing mothers, failing pregnant people, and failing children.Protecting citizens from the sort of public health and safety calamities—not to mention predatory advertising—that I’ve encountered on pregnancy apps should be the job of the federal government.