The Technological Impact on New Mothers

The face of motherhood has changed dramatically since the mid-20^th century, when the introduction of “the pill” allowed women to control when and whether they had children. This reproductive and sexual freedom gave women the opportunity to pursue a

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career outside the home, changing the frontier of motherhood forever. Technology brought about other major changes that have shaped how mothers bring up their children, making technology part of everyday life for today’s families.

Technology in Childbirth: The Trouble with Continuous Heart Monitoring

In 1900, nearly all births took place in the home with minimal or no medical intervention, and women would be assisted by midwives. However, by 1969 the home birth rate had dropped to and stayed at or under 1%. This was until 2004, when it began to increase slightly. With the change in birth setting came the medicalization of childbirth.

Now, 94% of women giving birth in a U.S. hospital will have electronic fetal heart monitoring, requiring them to lie on a bed with straps around their abdomen. Use of continuous electronic monitoring impedes freedom of movement, increasing labor pain. Most hospital births are by epidural anesthetic and the woman’s inability to move around adequately may be a reason so much epidural anesthetic are required. As the implementation of technology in the maternity unit has increased, the demands of that technology have taken over so that nurses spend more time operating electronic monitoring systems and less time paying attention to the woman’s physical comfort or emotional well-being. Grand-multiparous women who have given birth to at least five children over a number of years are able to see these changes most dramatically and some believe that technology makes childbirth less personal.

24/7 Digital Motherhood and Logging In Instead of Homing In

Mothers of the 21^st century don’t have to wait to tell people they have given birth or send their husband to the payphone and give family the good news. They can send a message from their iPhone if they want to while being stitched up on the operating table. Photos of the newborn can be emailed instantly across the world to be received in seconds.

The homing in period is also very different for the modern mom. In previous generations, the new mother would rest for a week or two to recover from birth, get to know her new baby, and

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establish breastfeeding while her own mother or other female relative would bring meals and do shopping and cleaning. New smartphones mean that today’s mother can order the shopping herself online, click for a pizza, check her e-mails, or have a video/telephone call to see her friends. One second-time mother described how access to social media in the post-natal period made her feel less trapped by the almost constant demands of a newborn and that breastfeeding didn’t feel like being “held hostage” as it had the first time.

Digital apps may encourage breastfeeding mothers to continue to feed their infants, although no one has studied the impact of cell phones on neonatal health or mother and baby bonding. Can the rooming-in period really be the same if the mother is on Facebook or Twitter while holding the baby?

The Birth of the Work-at-Home Mother

In previous decades, the argument raged over whether mothers should stay at home to raise their children or go to work, with one camp arguing that pre-schoolers needed a mother’s presence and the other camp arguing that children should learn by example and see their mothers achieve professionally. Now, the modern mother tries to have it all. A mother’s modem has brought with it the opportunity for her to profit right from her living room. Staying at home no longer means she can’t make money. More and more entrepreneurs are setting up their own businesses selling children’s clothes or diapers, renting water birth pools, even uploading home videos or writing paid “mommy blogs” online. Electronics and social media have opened up a new world of career opportunities for mothers who want the best of both worlds and don’t want to pay for childcare. This is a popular choice for mothers of children with behavioral disorders if they have struggled at school and the mother who wishes to combine homeschooling with work.

Electronic Healthcare

Another transformation that today’s mother will see is the digitalization of her child’s healthcare from paper to computer. Health authorities in different countries may provide an electronic health record that the mother can access at the click of a button and even leave comments on—allowing for a fairer doctor-patient relationship. Teleconsultations are also being rolled out so

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that new moms can talk to their child’s pediatrician on Skype instead of sitting in a waiting room full of sick people and risking the transmission of diseases.

For the times when they still have to see the doctor, there may be a touch screen computer outside his/her office for them to register that they have arrived, instead of standing in line and telling the receptionist. Some love the convenience; others feel as if they have stepped into a parallel universe when they enter the waiting room to find four other mothers all texting on their cell phones. In this new age of parenting, moms can spend more time speaking virtually than speaking to each other, making it really important to strike a healthy balance between incorporating technology into parenthood and being a truly attentive parent.

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