Prenatal Googling: Online Information Seeking by Israeli Women During Pregnancy

Abstract: In recent years, the internet has become a popular medium for pregnant women seeking pregnancy-related information (Gao et al., 2012; Lagan, Sinclair & Kernohan, 2010; Romano, 2007; Song, West, Lundy & Smith-Dahmen, 2012). This study which utilized a qualitative approach explores Israeli women’s online information seeking during pregnancy. Israel is an especially interesting and important case study for exploring pregnancy-related internet use, because Israel has the highest rate of prenatal testing in the world (Lavi, 2010). The findings of this study indicated that the most prominent type of information sought by Israeli pregnant women online was focused on prenatal tests. The internet as a source of pregnancy-related information seems to function not just as a means to fulfill personal informational needs, but also to represent a broader social phenomenon of a highly medicalized pregnancy that seem to intensify uncertainty and therefore, to increase the need to rely on the internet during pregnancy