Were pregnant women given the information they needed about COVID-19?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-01-14 06:00

Australia; VIC; WA

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Pregnant women in Australia found it difficult to get the information they needed about COVID-19 during the pandemic, increasing their risk of exposure to misinformation, according to Australian researchers. The researchers analysed social media activity and combined their results with in-depth interviews with 21 women who had been pregnant since the beginning of the pandemic. They say many women felt they lacked access to timely and easy-to-understand information, and felt disconnected from the hospitals they were set to give birth in. The researchers say social media was a popular source of information because it is an ideal platform for quickly communicating rapidly-changing information, however when trusted sources do not offer timely, easy-to-understand information this creates the potential risk of women turning to informal information sources that may not be accurate.