Ska vi kalkona, älskling? En studie om hur kvinnor planerar sin graviditet på internet

Today the internet has become a meeting place for people seeking advice and experience from other individuals. Internet also offers opportunities to send out information to large groups of people, which are at a geographical distance. A large increase of websites for parents has been seen in the recent years. On the largest Swedish website for parents, Familjeliv.se, approx. 40 000 posts are posted daily in the discussion forum. The need to seek fellowship and information can be seen as a consequence of the changes in the society, of which modernity theorists talk about. The purpose of this study was to examine women’s experiences of planning their pregnancy on the internet. How can the planning be understood in a postmodern perspective? The questions of the study were what the women plan before the pregnancy, in what extent the planning is done together with the partner and how the planning affects the relationship. The study was based on a hidden observation carried out during three weeks in Familjeliv.se’s discussion forum. The results showed that the planning consists of many aspects, from purely practical preparation to requests for advice on how to make a boy or a girl. The planning also leads to both positive and negative experiences; the most prominent was the fellowship and the support that the women offer each other. The feeling of fellowship also leads to an addiction, where the women find it difficult to stay away from the discussion forum. The variation in the given advices on the discussion forum leads to anxiety and uncertainty. The majority of the women, who were active in the forum, said that their partner did not participate in the planning. Therefore they sought advice on how they could persuade them to want to start trying to have children. In conclusion, the study showed the need of future research with focus also on the quality of information, men’s experiences, and how the existing parental support in the society can adapt to the new needs in the postmodern society