Demands, worries, and doubts affect pregnant women and the decision to have children. More than one in three women report that their mental health is worse during pregnancy compared to before. Among those who already have children, the number is as high as 40 percent. This is revealed in Preglife’s new report Gravidbarometern 2025, the largest of its kind. First-time mothers express the greatest hesitation about starting a family, and for half of all women, personal finances have played a decisive role in the decision to have children. The survey was conducted in collaboration with Verian (formerly Sifo samhällsundersökningar).
Preglife’s annual report Gravidbarometern, carried out in collaboration with Verian, provides a broad overview of what it is like to be pregnant in Sweden today. The survey behind the report is based on responses from more than 2,500 pregnant women. To better understand how pregnant women view the decision to have children in relation to the wider population, questions about the declining birth rate were also answered by more than 1,000 people from the general public.
Social media can negatively affect the pregnancy experience
The report shows that 34 percent of women feel worse mentally during pregnancy compared to before. Among women who already have children, the figure is 40 percent. Nearly half of those experiencing poorer mental health say that pregnancy does not match the idealized image they see on social media, which can negatively affect their own experience. Just over one in five feel mentally better during pregnancy than before.
Half of the women say they are fully satisfied with the support they receive during pregnancy. At the same time, two in five report that they only partially feel they get the support they need. The survey also shows that nearly all women believe that the expectations placed on new parents today are higher than when their own parents had children.
“For many women, pregnancy is part of an already pressured life, with demands from multiple directions and little room for error. Even when support is perceived as adequate, factors such as expectations, comparisons, and uncertainty about what lies ahead can lead to feelings of inadequacy before the child is even born,” says Åsa Holstein, Head Midwife and Deputy CEO of Preglife.
Three out of four women worry about childbirth, and six percent experience intense fear of giving birth.
Pregnant women also hesitate – lack of desire for children is the most common reason
Almost all women feel that there is strong social pressure to have children. Thirty percent of first-time mothers say that the decision to have children was not self-evident. The most common reason for hesitation is that many did not have a clear desire to become parents. The survey also shows that confidence in the future plays a role, with 31 percent stating that they have a negative outlook. Other reasons include feeling inadequate in the parental role and that having children has not felt natural.
“Today, the decision to have children is often seen as one choice among many, weighed against other aspects of life. To understand why more people are opting out of parenthood, we also need to understand what pregnancy actually entails—physically, mentally, practically, and socially. That knowledge is essential for support to be targeted correctly and to help more people manage, dare, and want to become parents,” says Åsa Holstein, Head Midwife and Deputy CEO of Preglife.
Proposals for measures that could encourage more people to have children include increased financial support for families with children, more flexible parental leave, and workplaces that are better adapted to parenthood.
About Gravidbarometern
Gravidbarometern is an annual report providing a broad overview of what it is like to be pregnant in Sweden. The report is produced by Preglife, Scandinavia’s leading app for pregnant women and new parents, in collaboration with Verian (formerly Sifo samhällsundersökningar). The underlying survey covers factors such as mental health, perceived expectations, social media, economy, career, and access to information, advice, and support. It also includes questions about vaccination and preferred place of birth.
This year’s theme highlights the declining birth rate, exploring whether the decision to have children was self-evident or not—and the reasons behind it. The survey also examines whether there is a perceived social expectation to have children, and what could make more people want to become parents. One of the questions allowed participants to give open-ended suggestions to policymakers on what measures they believe could help reverse the trend.
More than 2,500 pregnant women randomly selected from Preglife’s user base participated in the survey, making it the largest of its kind in Sweden. Nine out of ten pregnant women in Sweden use Preglife’s app during pregnancy, ensuring a strong representativity.
Verian has quality-assured the results by comparing demographic data from participants with a random sample of pregnant women in the Sifo panel. The comparison showed no systematic bias in the sample, making it possible to draw general conclusions about pregnant women in Sweden – giving the results particular significance.
To compare pregnant women’s views on the decision to have children with the general population, the questions about the declining birth rate were also answered by a control group of over 1,000 people (aged 18–84) in the Sifo panel.
“The survey is unique in that it highlights a group rarely represented in traditional quantitative research—women who are expecting a child. Even though this group is often discussed in public debate, it is unusual for them to be included in statistically reliable surveys. This is because pregnant women make up a very small share of the population (around 1 percent), which makes it methodologically challenging and resource-intensive to gather a sufficiently large sample,” says Matz Elzén, Client Director at Verian.
The hope is that the report will contribute to a deeper understanding of what influences both the pregnancy experience and the decision to have children—and, in the long run, the birth rate itself.
Key figures from the report:
34 percent say their mental health is worse during pregnancy compared to before. Among those who already have one or more children, the figure is 40 percent. 16 percent say they feel somewhat better, and 7 percent much better.
52 percent feel they receive sufficient support and advice during pregnancy. 41 percent feel they only partially receive sufficient support and advice.
83 percent say they believe the expectations on new parents today are higher than when their own parents had children. Women with lower education and income are more likely to feel the expectations are much higher compared to those with higher education and income.
35 percent report that their own experience of pregnancy sometimes or often does not “live up to” the image they see on social media. Among women who experience poorer mental health during pregnancy, nearly half (48 percent) say their own pregnancy does not match the picture they see on social media.
92 percent feel that there is a social expectation to have children. This perception is slightly more common among high-income earners.
30 percent of first-time mothers say the decision to have children was not self-evident. Among the general public, the figure is 14 percent.
Reasons why the decision was not self-evident include: no desire for children (42 percent), negative outlook on the future (31 percent), doubting their ability to be the parent a child would need (20 percent), and that it did not feel natural (10 percent).
One in two pregnant women say personal finances influenced their decision to have children. Among the general population, the figure is 29 percent.
Three out of four pregnant women say they feel fear of childbirth—ranging from mild to severe. The main worries are that something might happen to the baby, as well as fear of pain.