The internet still thinks I’m pregnant.
This is both a podcast and a print version. Author downloads an app as soon as she finds out she’s pregnant, enters personal information (due date, last menstrual period), and enjoys the pictures and info that come along every week. Then she miscarries and deletes the app, but personal information has been sold to various other companies so she receives marketing as though she’s still pregnant and even a box of formula samples just before her due date. She finds a way to laugh at this and take early miscarriage in stride, but muses on the irony of her pregnancy being such public property when she had told almost no one before she lost it.
Useful for reflecting on the various audiences and media for our health narratives: the story we tell close friends and family interpersonally, but also the “story” that is revealed by apps and purchases.
Although the author ends on a humorous note, the essay does also include details of pregnancy disclosure and health care for miscarriage.