What to Expect When You're Self-Tracking: Lived Experiences of Expectant Individuals and Perspectives of Care Providers on Pregnancy Data Practices

Paper Title

What to Expect When You're Self-Tracking: Lived Experiences of Expectant Individuals and Perspectives of Care Providers on Pregnancy Data Practices

Publication Info

• Topic area: Self-tracking practices and technology use during pregnancy
• Keywords: pregnancy tracking, self-tracking, women’s health, HCI, perinatal care, digital health, maternal health, sensing devices, midwives, obstetricians

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing pregnancy tracking tools are primarily designed through a personal informatics paradigm, focusing on physiological metrics and individual data collection. This neglects the emotional, social, and collaborative dimensions of pregnancy tracking and the perspectives of healthcare providers.
• Significance: Understanding the lived experiences of expectant individuals and the perspectives of perinatal care providers can inform the design of technologies that better support emotional and physical needs during pregnancy while addressing concerns about anxiety, data interpretation, and trust.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has explored pregnancy tracking as a collaborative and situated practice but has not adequately addressed the interplay between expectant individuals’ experiences and healthcare providers’ views. This study bridges that gap by examining both perspectives and their implications for technology design.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews to explore the self-tracking practices of expectant individuals and the perspectives of perinatal care providers.
• Novelty:
  1. Provides a holistic account of the types of pregnancy data valued by expectant individuals, moving beyond physiological metrics.
  2. Highlights how clinicians and midwives perceive and influence tracking practices, emphasizing their role as stakeholders.
  3. Integrates perspectives from both groups to propose design directions for pregnancy technologies that balance emotional, social, and clinical needs.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 expectant individuals and 15 perinatal care providers (12 midwives, 3 obstetricians) in Switzerland.
  • Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes and subthemes, combining inductive and deductive coding.
  • Data were analyzed using Dovetail software and visualized with affinity diagrams.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Expectant individuals tracked both maternal/fetal health data (e.g., weight, symptoms) and pregnancy-related events (e.g., baby movements, ultrasound images). Tracking was often passive and motivated by reassurance, understanding, and memory-making.
  • Perinatal care providers viewed self-tracking with skepticism, citing concerns about anxiety, misinterpretation, and unnecessary medical visits, but acknowledged its potential for reassurance and bonding.
  • Tracking practices were influenced by factors such as pregnancy stage, prior pregnancies, geographic location, and social involvement.
  • Emotional impacts of tracking were mixed: it provided reassurance and connection but also caused stress and anxiety, particularly when data were ambiguous or difficult to interpret.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Moves beyond the individualistic, data-centric paradigm of personal informatics to account for emotional, social, and clinical dimensions of pregnancy tracking.
  • Highlights the collaborative nature of tracking and the importance of integrating healthcare providers’ expertise into technology design.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Interviews with 16 expectant individuals (ages 28–38, M = 34.6) and 15 care providers (ages 23–67, M = 43.1) were conducted, with thematic analysis revealing 4 primary themes and 10 subthemes.
  • Participants included first-time and experienced parents, with diverse tracking practices and motivations.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Sample was limited to expectant individuals in Switzerland, with relatively high educational and socioeconomic status.
  • Partners were not interviewed, limiting insights into collaborative tracking.
  • Future research should include underrepresented and non-WEIRD populations, as well as explore the role of partners in tracking practices.

Summary

This study investigates the self-tracking practices of expectant individuals and the perspectives of perinatal care providers, revealing a complex ecosystem shaped by emotional, social, and clinical factors. While tracking offers reassurance and memory-making opportunities, it can also induce anxiety and stress, particularly when data are ambiguous or misinterpreted. Perinatal care providers emphasize the importance of professional support and body awareness over reliance on technology. The findings inform five design directions for pregnancy technologies, including prioritizing reassurance, supporting memory-making, integrating care provider expertise, enabling holistic tracking, and fostering body awareness. These insights contribute to HCI research on women’s health and inform the development of more inclusive and supportive pregnancy tracking tools.