Abstract

The Internet has become a commonly used medium through which persons obtain information on health. Women use the Internet more often to obtain health-related information, and their tendency towards searching the Internet for information increases during pregnancy, which is a very important period in their lives. This review article presents findings on the phenomenon of searching the Internet for health-related information in pregnant women. It includes a detailed description of facilitating and inhibiting factors due to which pregnant women engage in Internet searches on health, as well as processes within the healthcare system that lead to such searches. We describe the most commonly used internet sources for health-related information and the most common search topics in pregnant women. Various aspects of the reliability of the information intended for pregnant women that can be found on the Internet are described, as well as factors that they take into account when evaluating the accuracy and the relevance of the information. We also present a concise overview of the demographic, obstetric, and psychological characteristics of pregnant women due to which they are more prone to web searches on information related to health. The psychological characteristics described herein comprise health literacy, self-efficacy, health-related locus of control, health-related anxiety, and pregnancy-specific anxiety. We explain the effects and consequences of Internet searches on the functioning and wellbeing of pregnant women, with an emphasis on compulsive web searches and intensification of anxiety after searching. Finally, we describe the importance of research in this area given the numerous practical applications.