Introduction: A woman faces many changes as she transitions into motherhood. Among other changes, this transition is marked by her own expectations of her body image, which are often shaped by the cultural and social norms of her environment. A growing body of research shows the negative impact of traditional media on body image perceptions, and more recently the negative impact of new media channels on body image perceptions. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to assess the impact of social networking sites on women's self-image in the postpartum period through a literature review. Methods: The descriptive method of work was used for the elaboration of the thesis. Literature was searched in Medline, Science Direct, Cinahl, ResarchGate (with NCBI server) and Pubmed between March 2022 and October 2022.The following keywords in English and Slovenian were used in the literature search: telesna samopodoba AND družbena omrežja AND poporodno obdobje AND telo po porodu AND medicinska sestra; body image AND social media AND postpartum AND body AND nurse. Results: Women in the postnatal period have a worse physical and mental well-being than in the antenatal period. They see the biggest challenges in accepting body changes, gaining weight, partnering and establishing effective breastfeeding. Social networks have a major influence in this respect, as they often show unrealistic images of postnatal women, which lower mothers' body self-esteem because they do not achieve such goals. Breastfeeding, sexuality, exercise, religiosity, etc., increase body self-esteem. Discussion and conclusion: Social media and the content of social media represent the beauty ideals of society in our lives. Women are susceptible to this and compare themselves to models online, which has a negative impact on their perception of body image. It would be good to consider professional support for members of the health care team also online, in the form of forums or groups, where they could give expert opinions to postnatal women and offer them help when they need it. It would also be good if women in Slovenia had the option of seeing a psychologist as part of their postnatal care.
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