Currently accepted at: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Oct 10, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 13, 2025 - Dec 8, 2025
Date Accepted: Feb 11, 2026
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
This paper has been accepted and is currently in production.
It will appear shortly on 10.2196/85640
The final accepted version (not copyedited yet) is in this tab.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Expectant and New Mothers’ Use of Facebook Private Groups to Learn about Infant Sleep and Feeding Practices
ABSTRACT
Background:
Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) is a leading cause of postneonatal death in the United States. Following recommended infant care practices such as safe sleep and breastfeeding reduce the risk of SUID. Parents use social media to help them make decisions about infant care practices.
Objective:
The objective of our qualitative study was to explore mothers’ perspectives about the acceptability of Facebook Private Groups (FBPGs) for providing education on infant care practices.
Methods:
We conducted a descriptive qualitative study recruiting a purposeful sample of pregnant persons and mothers who recently gave birth who were clients of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) in 2 states. We conducted in-depth interviews which were analyzed inductively through a systematic, iterative process using an interview guide. We asked participants about their perspectives regarding use of FBPGs for learning about infant care practices, including sleep practices and breastfeeding. Data were collected until data sufficiency was reached.
Results:
Of the 22 participants, 59.1% were WIC clients from Rhode Island and 40.9% from Virginia. While the use by participants of Facebook in general varied, all either used, or liked the idea of using specifically FBPGs to disseminate infant care practices guidance about safe sleep and breastfeeding to pregnant persons and new parents. Participants reported using FBPGs for 3 main purposes: 1) information seeking, 2) the experience of engaging in FBPGs, and 3) social connectedness.
Conclusions:
The use of FBPGs was endorsed by the participants for providing mothers with information about infant care practices. Participants outlined their reasons for and experience with the use of FBPGs that can inform effective use of the platform for educational interventions. Clinical Trial: Not applicable
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.