When Alex P. got pregnant, she made a decision to retreat from the digital world as much as possible. She knew all too well that once algorithms picked up on her pregnancy, that’s the content she would see. She also knew conversations online could negatively influence her expectations of birth. But what she didn’t expect was the barrage of motherhood-related content that would follow her postpartum, too.
Alex was caught off guard by the challenges of getting her baby to sleep. She knew a lack of sleep would be part of early parenting. She didn’t expect her son to be six months old and still not be able to sleep through the night. Exhausted and bleary-eyed, she went looking for solutions to ease the burden of constant sleep deprivation.
A first-time mom who gave birth during the pandemic, Alex didn’t have much of an in-person network to seek support from and turn to for advice. But online, there was no shortage of free advice from people claiming to be baby sleep experts or consultants. Following the old adage, “sleep when the baby sleeps,” is nearly impossible when the baby isn’t sleeping anywhere but on you. Online baby sleep experts promised Alex something different.