"Mothers as Candy Wrappers": Critical Infrastructure Supporting the Transition into Motherhood

Abstract

The transition into motherhood is a complicated and often unsupported major life disruption. To alleviate mental health issues and to support identity re-negotiation, mothers are increasingly turning to online mothers' groups, particularly private and secret Facebook groups; these can provide a complex system of social, emotional, and practical support for new mothers. In this paper we present findings from an exploratory interview study of how new mothers create, find, use, and participate in ICTs, specifically online mothers' groups, to combat the lack of formal support systems by developing substitute networks. Utilizing a framework of critical infrastructures, we found that these online substitute networks were created by women, for women, in an effort to fill much needed social, political, and medical gaps that fail to see 'woman and mother' as a whole being, rather than simply as a 'discarded candy wrapper'. Our study contributes to the growing literature on ICT use by mothers for supporting and negotiating new identities, by illustrating how these infrastructures can be re-designed and appropriated in use, for critical utilization.

Inattentive, imprudent and inapt: discovering inadequacies of ICT during life-changing events through the lens of non-users

“…Furthermore, previous work conducted with a particular focus on gender transition has documented that during LCEs, people often communicate with other people who are facing the same LCE, who are not experts and also not people whom they have known previously (an example of what has been called social transition machinery (Haimson 2018)). Similar behaviour was observed also by researchers studying abusive behaviour and transition into motherhood (Britton, Barkhuus, and Semaan 2019). In summary, ICT enables new forms of communication that are pivotal to people experiencing LCEs toward the reestablishment of equilibrium.…”

“…links, phone numbers). The role of anonymity in OSNs in relation to LCEs was already reported in prior research on sexual abuse (Andalibi et al 2016, gender transition and transition into motherhood (Britton, Barkhuus, and Semaan 2019). This work reports the use of anonymity in a wider range of LCEs such as bereavement and sentimental breakups.…”

“…( De Choudhury, Counts, and Horvitz 2013;Gibson and Hanson 2013;Peyton et al 2014;Schoenebeck 2015 2016;Durrant et al 2018;Toombs et al 2018;Britton, Barkhuus, and Semaan 2019) h. Child Starting College and Leaving Home…”

Circumspect Users: Older Adults as Critical Adopters and Resistors of Technology

“…Transitions and trajectories are not new concepts to HCI and CSCW. Both disciplines have "a long history in transition work" [17], exploring the role of digital technologies in common life transitions such as parenthood (e.g. [2,17]), retirement (e.g.…”

“…[67]). In this literature, transitions have been defned as "processes whereby people shift from one life phase to another" [67], and as a "period of adjustment" following a life disruption [17]. Trajectories have been less explored but are still present across the literature, which has looked, for instance, at life trajectories of money and fnances [73], learning [1] and philanthropy [37].…”