12 - Mapping pregnancy resources available online to LGBTQIA+ health consumers

Objectives: LGBTQIA+ people hoping to build families face many health service barriers, often turning to online consumer health information instead of or in addition to navigating heteronormative and cisnormative healthcare systems. However, internet resources on LGBTQIA+ planned pregnancy are scarce. This project’s objective was therefore to map the available online resources about wanted pregnancy for LGBTQIA+ health consumers, with the purpose of improving awareness of quality resources among librarians, while also highlighting an existing research and information gap.

Methods: Librarians searched through internet browsers and known pregnancy and LGBTQIA+ resources to locate resources that explicitly addressed pregnancy information needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. Included resources focused on planned pregnancies; excluded resources focused on sexual health, contraception, or unplanned pregnancies. Found resources were assessed in terms of type of resource, ease of locating, readability (literacy and disability accessibility), understandability (health literacy), and inclusivity (inclusive language and imagery).

Results: Study results show that resources, while inclusive to a point, are difficult to find through both simple searches and librarian-assisted portals. The information available combines patient advocacy and educational information, with a large number of additional resources serving as advertisements for fertility clinics or assisted reproduction programs. Although the resources were inclusive in terms of gender and sexuality, they often struggled with website accessibility, rarely recognized disabilities, and were lacking in support for different languages.

Conclusions: LGBTQIA+ patients already struggle with finding clinicians well-versed in their care needs, which are different from the care needs of cisgender, heterosexual patients. If the information available online is also difficult to find, not easy to understand, or not inclusive, LGBTQIA+ health consumers will remain underserved when searching for information to support their pregnancies.