After two years of extensive research, which examined online peer support for queer mothers, Professor Karpman, Emily Ruppel '18, Mallory Merryman '15 & Carolyn Delk '03 saw their work published in renown journal Midwifery on March 1, 2017. From the journal:
Recent research has concluded that barriers to maternity health care exist for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women. This mixed methods study aims to understand patterns in seeking and sharing online health information for LBQ women attempting conception.
Researchers performed a qualitative content analysis of 400 discussions in lesbian-oriented Facebook groups, containing 1764 total instances of text. 400 discussions from heterosexual-oriented conception and parenting Facebook groups were examined for comparison purposes, though they will not be the focus of this analysis. This paper also presents descriptive statistics on posts observed. Read more.