Communicating risk through pregnancy apps

Thomas, Gareth M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4959-2337 2026. Communicating risk through pregnancy apps. Scamell, Mandie, Coxon, Kirstie and De Vries, Raymond, eds. Risk and Uncertainty in Maternity Care: Putting Risk in Its Place, Critical Studies in Risk and Uncertainty, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 295-308. (10.1007/978-3-032-02731-3_14)

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Abstract

Apps are software applications designed to run on mobile devices, such as mobile telephones, tablets, and watches. In this chapter, Thomas identifies how we can think of apps as socio-cultural artefacts that reproduce values, ideas, and expectations of its users. Thomas begins his chapter by sketching out how we can theoretically make sense of apps with respect to embodiment, healthism, risk, and medicalisation. From here, he explores how apps define pregnant bodies as both a site of risk/pathology and a site of play/performance. In many apps, pregnancy is defined as ‘risky’ and as demanding compliance to behaviours in ways that are seen to reduce harms to women and the foetus/baby. Alongside this communication of risk, however, is a discourse whereby pregnancy is seen as an opportunity for play and enjoyment. Both ‘types’ of app, Thomas says, breed heteronormative and gendered ideals around embodiment, normalcy, sexuality, gender, care, and parenthood. Users of the apps are encouraged to view pregnancy as an embodied mode of close monitoring and surveillance, display, and performance. Ultimately, though, Thomas concludes, such apps rest on ideologies concerning the management and responsibilisation of the (neoliberal) self.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:	9783032027306
ISSN:	2523-7268
Last Modified:	07 May 2026 10:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/186863

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