A content analysis of online social support behaviors of overseas Chinese prenatal and postnatal women

This study addresses the health concerns and online social support behaviors of overseas Chinese prenatal and postnatal women. A content analysis was conducted on 429 posts of an online maternity message board, created and moderated mainly by overseas Chinese. The results indicate that the majority of the online posts are related to giving informational support in the form of personal experiences. The first-hand experiences provide the online community members with personalized information to supplement physicians’ advice. The major topics include baby pictures/videos, personal narratives, and medical issues. The major types of social support are informational support, followed by emotional support. The study answers the call to take into account marginalized cultural voices in health communication.