JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Social media provides spaces to share postpartum experiences, seek advice and access support outside clinical settings. However, longitudinal and cross-country patterns in postpartum-related emotional language remain comparatively underexplored.

Objective:

This study characterised English-language #postpartum discourse over time and across countries and, as a secondary objective, explored whether its affective characteristics were associated with national perceived social connectedness among women.

Methods:

This descriptive study analysed English-language #postpartum tweets posted between January 2016 and January 2023, collected through academic access to the Twitter API. Tweet volume, engagement metrics, text valence (using VADER) and emotion-related language (using the NRC Emotion Lexicon) were summarized over time and by country. Exploratory ecological correlation analyses tested the hypothesis that higher national levels of perceived social connectedness among women would be associated with greater positive expression in postpartum-related online discourse, assessed using country-level mean VADER positive and negative scores.

Results:

Of 52’423 tweets retained for temporal analyses, 35’423 from 11 countries were included in geographic analyses, including high-, upper-middle-, and lower-middle-income countries, although 95.2% of geolocated tweets originated from high-income countries. The mean VADER compound score regarding 35’423 tweets included in geographic analysis was 0.18 (95% CI 0.18–0.19), with the highest country-level mean in Australia. Trust- and joy-associated language predominated, peaking in 2020, while fear-related language was also frequent. Among the 11 countries, perceived social connectedness was positively correlated with mean VADER positive scores (ρ = 0.63; p = 0.039), while its correlation with negative scores was negative but inconclusive (ρ = −0.51, p = 0.11).

Conclusions:

English-language #postpartum tweets showed geographic and temporal variation in text valence and emotion-related language within a selective corpus dominated by high-income countries. These patterns describe online discourse and should not be interpreted as direct measures of maternal mental health. Exploratory findings suggest that perceived social connectedness may be related to the affective characteristics of postpartum-related online discourse, but this association requires investigation in larger, more representative and temporally aligned datasets. Clinical Trial: not applicable