Balancing social media use

A pregnant woman sits cross-legged on her bed while scrolling on her phone.

For many new parents, social media is an important part of their social interaction each day. It is the way many parents stay in contact with friends and family, connect with other parents, and seek parenting-related information.

Benefits

Potential benefits of social media for new or expectant parents:

Reducing social isolation
Sharing of experiences
Seeking information
Feeling a sense of validation and reassurance
Extra support

However, sometimes social media use may trigger feelings of sadness, anxiety, frustration or shame. There are many unrealistic portrayals of parenthood and significant misinformation about parenting within social media, so it's best to work out who are the more trusted, realistic resources and follow those.

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Risks

Risks and potential harms of social media for new or expectant parents:

Exposure to distressing images of world events
Misinformation
Feelings of inadequacy
Unnecessary comparison to others
Increased anxiety
A skewed view of parenthood

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Strategies

For these reasons it may be helpful to restrict social media use to limited time frames or specific tasks during pregnancy or while in the early days of parenting. To decide when and how much exposure to social media is useful, they should try and notice how they feel after using it. If social media is having a negative effect, the new or expectant parent could phone or message someone supportive instead.

It may be helpful to speak with a professional about strategies to manage social media use. For concerns or questions about the baby's health or a medical issue, seek advice and information from a health practitioner, rather than from online sources only.

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