‘Babies are a massive money spinner’: Data, reproductive labour and the commodification of pre-motherhood in fertility and pregnancy apps

Abstract

This article investigates how users of self-tracking apps evaluate the imperative to share intimate data. Through 42 interviews with 24 women in the United Kingdom who had used fertility and pregnancy tracking apps with the hope of giving birth to a baby in the future, this article empirically examines the lived experiences of sharing, withholding and managing intimate data. Research participants perceived their sharing of data with their apps as a transaction or payment in return for improved access to knowledge and information about fertility, pregnancy and parenthood. By critically examining the intersection of digitised reproductive labour and intensive mothering ideologies, I argue that these evaluations of data sharing as transactional were heavily influenced by a digitally intensified consumer culture of pre-motherhood.