Home Birth Is Trending: Attitudes and Preceptions of Home and Hospital Birth on Tiktok

ABSTRACT

Purpose of Study During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients avoided hospitals for many conditions, including giving birth. When compared to births in 2019, home births increased by 22% in 2020 and neonate outcomes worsened. Apgar scores of 0-3 and preterm births increased by 35.9% and 39.3% respectively. Previous studies have examined why patients choose home birth, but there has not been a recent study using social media as a source to identify these reasons. In this study, we identified themes in TikTok comments and posts to describe current attitudes toward home birth as it becomes a more prevalent choice in birth location among people despite the fact it is associated with worse birth outcomes. Methods Used Using the search terms "home birth" and "home vs. hospital birth," videos were extracted from TikTok 's database and sorted by relevance to the search query. Video posts were reviewed for inclusion criteria a minimum of ten comments, in English, in the date rage of January 2017- July 2022, and discussing birth within the United States. Inductive thematic saturation was used to classify the themes within the included video posts and proceeding comments. Once thematic saturation was reached in the comments, defined as ten consecutive comments with no new themes, the next post in the search results was reviewed. When 10 consecutive new posts with no new themes were found, the next search term was examined. All themes were extracted from each post and comment. The subjective importance of each of the themes within a post or comment were not identified. Summary of Results: The search yielded 352 posts and 34,439 comments. 115 posts and 1024 comments met inclusion criteria. Overall, 71.3% of posts were supportive of home birth, 17.4% were opposed, and 11.3% were neutral;70% of posts were from 2022 and nearly all the rest from 2021. Fourteen supportive themes such as desire to control the birth environment and experience, perceived danger in hospital birth, desire for fewer medical interventions, and personal stories were identified while ten themes in opposition emerged such as the perceived danger of home birth, desire for medical interventions, and personal birth experience. Three themes focused on an individual's right to make their own choices were identified as neutral. Analyzing the total theme counts 894 supported home birth, 359 opposed it, and 172 were neutral. Conclusion(s) The COVID-19 pandemic brought the topic of home birth to the forefront. Women appear to be drawn to home birth because it is an environment where they have control and feel safe and comfortable. This study's results may be used to understand current attitudes of a vocal minority toward home birth, improve counseling patients received from physicians, and be implemented to improve hospital birth experiences.