The Pregnant Influencer Is Good For Business: The Capitalization of Pregnancy on Social Media
This is a written version of a video essay produced for Laurie’s Wandering Mind on Youtube.
In the past few years, as I became a mom and started to consume motherhood-related content, I realized that there is this huge trend among mom content creators to do all kinds of specific videos and posts about their pregnancies like pregnancy announcement, gender reveal, what’s in my hospital bag, pregnancy progression, birth vlogs and birth stories, etc. In fact, I have participated in that trend myself on my older channel and documented both of my pregnancies producing similar content, so as I unpack this today, I want to acknowledge that I am just as much part of this trend as any of the people I will mention!
Going back to this phenomenon of influencers sort of capitalizing on their pregnancies through sharing large amounts of content based on them, this often boosts their engagement and following and can even lead to increasing their revenue. That’s why it’s so fascinating. There is obviously a debate as to whether influencers should feature their kids in their content, and I would love to explore that more someday, but what about an unborn child? Does it count? I won’t really focus on the ethics of it all today, but rather I want to explore how this trend unfolds, what it means for influencers and content creators, and also some other considerations regarding sharing one’s pregnancy online.
For the purpose of this article, I actually conducted my own amateur data analysis of pregnancy videos on mom channels and on channels of other niches announcing their first pregnancy and thus opening themselves up to the mom niche, as well as instagram pages featuring new pregnancies. I can’t wait to share with you what I have found.
Before we get started, I also wanted to note that I want to make more thorough videos on the rise of the momfluencer, and the aesthetic vs messy real life moms in the near future. So hopefully you are excited and will stay tuned for that!!
The Old-School Obsession with Celebrity Pregnancies
Our obsession with famous people’s pregnancy is not new, so it should be no surprise that we are now shifting our attention to influencer pregnancies. After all, pretty much every celebrity pregnancy announcement goes viral, even Princess Diana’s pregnancy made the front page back in 1984.
Since then pregnancy announcements from Beyonce, Rihanna, and Kylie Jenner have all almost broke the internet. In fact, Beyoncé’s pregnancy announcement was the most liked picture on Instagram in 2017. But because of the more private and secretive nature of most celebrities, people are focusing a lot of their attention on popular influencers announcing their pregnancies and often documenting them in great details for everyone to see. Some celebrities are trying to hope on the train though like Shay Mitchell did with her Youtube Original series “Almost Ready” released on her channel in 2019 documenting her pregnancy journey including the birth of her daughter, Atlas.
The Influencer Pregnancy Craze
For an influencer, getting pregnant is goldmine, not only for content ideas but also for potential brand deals. I think the main reason pregnancy attracts this boost in engagement is because moms-to-be, new moms, and even women TTC (trying to conceive) are all searching for information regarding pregnancy, to help them make decisions and find product recommendations, and hear about other moms’ experiences. In part, probably because we don’t have access to the village and endless amounts of elder siblings and cousins and aunts to guide us along this brand new journey, we turn to online communities for advice, reassurance and support, and that includes our favorite content creators!
The typical pregnancy videos you’ll find most influencers create include the typical pregnancy announcement and/or how I found out I was pregnant, telling my husband I’m pregnant, early pregnancy symptoms/how I knew I was pregnant, baby names I like but won’t be using, all sorts of baby hauls/baby registry must-haves/newborn essentials, postpartum prep/essentials, some sort of elaborate or low-key gender reveal and/or baby shower vlog, what’s in my hospital bag, pregnancy progression, birth vlogs, birth stories, the super random “if you watch this i’m in labor” videos, and the list goes on. On instagram, you’ll probably find the pregnancy announcement with a pregnancy test or ultrasound picture, a black and white gender reveal you have to swipe through, some cottagecore or boudoir maternity shoot, a cute birth announcement and name reveal, along with some stories about product recommendations, Q&As, advice, emotional support, empowering and relatable stories, and more.
I think this trend is growing because a lot of the beauty, lifestyle & fashion influencers that have gained a lot of popularity in the last decade are now in their late 20s or early 30s and are now starting to have families. Their audiences may also be of similar age and follow along with them in this new chapter of life.
In the data analysis I conducted, I actually looked at how much of an increased in engagement channels who had niches other than motherhood got when they announced their pregnancies. I’m not sure how much you want to know about my methodology, but I chose to calculate the positive engagement change which I measured through the like or thumbs up ratio comparing the previous 10 videos preceding their announcement to selected pregnancy videos they created. With influencers from lifestyle, fashion, beauty, fitness, and other niches, I found that following the announcement of their first pregnancy on social media, their youtube engagement on popular pregnancy topic videos was on average 4.2 time more than previous videos, the highest shift being 5.6x and the lowest 2.9x. This likely indicates the arrival of a whole new audience for them. The most popular video topics for these emerging mom vloggers were telling my husband I’m pregnant, followed by pregnancy announcement/finding out I’m pregnant, and birth vlogs. These videos brought in 7 to 11 times more engagement than the creator’s typical videos did previously. This clearly demonstrate the opportunity existing for content creators to broaden their audiences through pregnancy and motherhood and build a more lifestyle-oriented brand that encompasses more than whatever category they previously created content for.
Even established motherhood-related channels benefit from a boost in engagement upon announcing a new pregnancy. In my analysis, using the same metrics I mentioned earlier, I found that on large channels with over 1M subscribers, pregnancy videos had approximately 1.5x more engagement than previous videos. For mid-size channels, with over 100K subscribers, the effect was approximately 2.5x more engagement, and on smaller channels, with over 10K subscribers, the effect was approximately 2.3x more engagement. I also found that the most engaging type of videos by a large margin was birth vlogs. Pregnancy announcements/finding out I’m pregnant were the second most popular type of video followed by gender reveals.
Finally, I conducted a similar analysis on Instagram and calculated the average positive engagement of selected accounts based on likes of the 10 previous posts prior to announcing a pregnancy and popular pregnancy post topics. I found that the average ratio for the accounts on selected popular pregnancy post topics was 3.8 times more engagement than on posts prior to the pregnancy announcement.
Based on this, it’s pretty easy to understand why documenting their pregnancy is highly advantageous for influencers and content creators.
Where The Money Comes In
So now that we know just how much more engagement pregnancy related videos can bring, it makes sense that it would correlate with an increase in revenue as well. For content creators on Youtube, this may come through an increase in Ad Sense revenue since the content is very algorithm-friendly and brings in more views and engagement. It also comes from an increase in content topics since pregnancy and motherhood creates an opportunity to make a lot of videos. In my analysis, I actually calculated the average amount of pregnancy-related videos the selected channels created and found that on average, these creators can create up to or over 37 pregnancy-related videos.
In fact, the same is true for Instagram. The average amount of posts related to pregnancy or featuring “the bump” was 18, with the highest one found being 38, which indicates that creators get ample opportunities to create content associated with their pregnancies. And that only took posts into account as I did not study stories for the purpose of my research. While instagram doesn’t share revenue with its creators and no money can be made from posting alone, this information along with the findings discussed earlier suggests that influencers that would benefit from a boost in engagement would be able to used their improved metrics to get better brand deals and sponsors for posts and stories.
That actually brings me to my next point. Another way influencers can capitalize on their pregnancies and make money is through advertisement. According to multiple articles I read and linked below, advertisers and brand marketing executives are highly attracted to pregnant influencers since they provide an extra layer of authenticity and relatability they deeply wish to capitalize on. In my research, I actually found that Clearblue had worked with upward of 70 celebrities and influencers on endorsements of its products since 2013. I did actually remember seeing Daniela Monet do an #ad post for them when she announced her pregnancy with her daughter, Ivry. There has also been this campaign of Buy Buy Baby sponsorships on Youtube where creators like The Wads, Olivia Zapo, and Life of Maddy among others went to shop at the store and share their hauls.
In another section of my data analysis, I actually examined sponsored content on motherhood channels and instagram pages. On YouTube, through the channels I studied, I found that some often only included regular sponsors on DITL vlogs that did happen to feature their pregnancy (Care/of, Native, Function of Beauty, Kiwico (for older kids), HelloFresh, Thrive Market, Casetify, etc.). There were only a few instances of sponsorships being on videos that were solely dedicated to a specific topic, often with the product featured in some kind of way. For Instagram I did not find any particular significance in sponsorship in the few accounts I reviewed to that effect, although I did not survey stories, only posts. I want to acknowledge the limitations of my research by disclosing that I only reviewed 4/12 channels included in the first part of my analysis and 3/6 instagram pages for the sponsorship analysis and so my data not be very substantiated. I honestly only did it to see if there was any correlation but every channel is different and will have different standards and ethics regarding monetizing their pregnancies beyond Ad Sense revenue. I wish I could have included a wider sample but this actually took me almost 10 hours and I will make 0 money off of it or even have it published so….
Anyways, moving on. Another way for influencers to generate revenue through their pregnancies, which may arguably be more lucrative than sponsorships for some, is affiliate sales. As Renée Cramer, a professor of law, politics and society at Drake University and the author of “Pregnant With the Stars: Watching and Wanting the Celebrity Baby Bump.” explains, the way celebrity (or in this case influencer) mothers become “branded exemplars of how ordinary people can and should live.” When we see a celebrity holding up a certain brand of pregnancy test or diapers, Dr. Cramer said in an interview, it reminds “average people that, well, this company belongs in your nursery, even if there’s no good reason for it.”
One of the main reasons moms-to-be and new moms gravitate towards influencers during their pregnancies and early motherhood day is to get product recommendations and to get advice in the seemingly endless stream of decision making required of them. Influencers “shouting out” and linking their favourite products, whether they were gifted through PR packages or purchased with their own money, is an excellent way to benefit from that influx in engagement and generate revenue. If you go in the description box of any pregnancy video you will see a lot of affiliate links and amazon storefront links. All of these will give a small commission to the influencer if you purchase through the link, typically at no extra cost to you. Some affiliate programs even go as far as giving you a discount for using the link.
Ultimately, pregnancy is a goldmine for content creators and influencers. Using their social media presence, they can generate revenue through views on youtube videos, sponsorships and brand deals, and affiliate sales.
I actually have a couple more videos coming up that will go into more details about influencer monetization and sponsorships, so stay tuned for that!
Some Issues & Considerations When Sharing Pregnancy Online
Next, I would like to quickly address some things to keep in mind in terms of pregnancies being shared online.
First, just as with any other type of content on social media, pregnancy posts and videos can lead to a lot of negative comparison. Body image is a complex issue in pregnancy and postpartum and being exposed to a large amount of pregnancy and postpartum content can exacerbate that. There can also be comparison in terms of financial means, health and other sensitive areas as well, so beware. For content creators, try to always be considerate and for viewers, set healthy boundaries for yourselves and respect them.
Advice can also be a problem. I know, historically, we relied on advice from our village and large family especially when it came to pregnancy, birth and parenting, but remember that not all advice back them was sound either. I just urge everyone to take advice online with a grain of salt and if possible do research or ask a professional before doing anything that may or may not be safe. The internet is full of “experts” but it’s not always easy to know who to trust. A lot of influencers will hide behind the “i’m just sharing my own journey/experience” when giving advice or showing what they do, but remember that it’s not because they do it that it is safe. As a trained doula and prenatal yoga teacher, I have been taught to stay within my scope of practice and to not give any medical advice, but most influencers lack the self-awareness to understand their scope sometimes. I have seen and heard advice that I knew was unsound and potentially unsafe, and I can only imagine there is more of that out there. So please, practice caution. That goes for pregnancy and postpartum but also for all other areas of life. I believe influencers have the responsibility to educate themselves and also recognize what is appropriate for them to recommend. When sharing their experiences and dishing out advice, they should consider referring their viewers and followers to qualified professionals. In terms of pregnancy related content, I’m mostly speaking of advice that may be medical in nature such as how to soften your cervix or how to induce labor at home or even prescribing exercises for pregnancy and or specific-condition.
Final Thoughts
Sorry, I got a bit dramatic and dark there for a second, but I believe it important to acknowledge.
In closing, there is incredible power behind sharing our journeys and experiences online including pregnancy and motherhood. Even though this article mostly focuses on how influencers sharing their pregnancies is great for their bottom lines, there is a lot of positive to be gained for the viewers. Having the people you follow share relatable stories that make you feel seen, and helping you navigate the uncertain times of early motherhood is not to be dismissed. I personally always shared motherhood content on my other channel with the intention to help other moms, and I know this is what most other mom content creators want too!
With that, I will see you next time. Hope you enjoyed!
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