In my thesis, the focus is on women who represent half of the entire society. Women experience major physiological, psychological and cultural upheavals during pregnancy. In the midst of different changes they can feel surrounded by the concept that they will not be able to cope with the new circumstances and this is why they need to a large extent social support when fighting different effects. In order to understand the needs of young mothers, I decided to define the concepts of pregnancy and motherhood in my thesis followed by an explanation of social support and social networks. Nowadays almost every household uses information and communication technology. At the end of the theoretical part I talk about the pregnant women and young mothers and their activities over the World Wide Web. The empirical part represents an analysis by the areas of social support (information support, emotional support, material support and informal occasional socializing) including twelve in-depth interviews conducted with pregnant women and young mothers. The thesis concludes with the findings that young mothers are more likely to use the World Wide Web to provide them with detailed information. At the same time they also more often seek companionship like confirmation from pregnant women and affiliation with them. In the case of emotional support, the one of the closest family members and friends is important for both pregnant women and young mothers. Material support is also sought by both groups from their loved ones, however a group of mothers shows a greater preference for finding material support over the World Wide Web.
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