Culture, pregnancy, and health information behavior: A bibliometric review and science-mapping analysis 2001-2026

Pregnancy is a period of intensive health information need, yet women’s information seeking, interpretation, trust and use are shaped by cultural beliefs, language, migration experiences and access to care. Research on this topic remains dispersed across maternal health, public health, digital health and communication studies. This review contributes to map the knowledge structure and thematic evolution of the field and foregrounds culture as a communicative and structural context for pregnancy-related health information behavior. Bibliographic records were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. After title and abstract screening, 221 publications from 2001 to 2026 were analyzed using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. The field expanded rapidly after 2021 and was organized around five themes: maternity care communication, digital health and mHealth, migration and information-access barriers, cultural context with health literacy and equity, and culturally responsive perinatal mental health. Culture-related terms connected information access, language, trust, service responsiveness and health equity across the thematic structure. Future research should move beyond documenting barriers towards designing culturally safe, digitally accessible, linguistically inclusive and trust-oriented maternal health information systems.