iPhone Pregnancies: Self-Testing as Surveillance and Care in the Trying to Conceive Community.

Abstract

People trying to conceive (TTC) often rely on accessible technologies and associated apps to track aspects of menstrual cycles. We explore this growing phenomenon from the perspective of self-testing as surveillance-care for the TTC individual or couple and their current and future fertility and pregnancy. Through an analysis of anonymous fora posts, we argue that surveillance-care provides those TTC with a sense of community, as well as agency and control over inexact bodily processes. Here, surveillance-care enacted on the self is about care for the hoped-for future pregnancy, and resulting baby, as opposed to one's own current health status.