Women's magazines and television influence whether a pregnant mother decides to have natural childbirth or not, according to a recent study.

Researchers at Monash University and Queensland University of Technology found that popular media was biased towards promoting the benefits of medical intervention even in low risk births, despite evidence that it leads to preventable maternal and infant morbidity.

"We wanted to look at how women's decisions might be influenced by communicating the alternative benefits of non-medicalized birth," Kate Young, lead researcher of the study, said in a statement.

For the study, researchers surveyed women between the ages of 18 and 35 who had never given birth, and gave them magazine articles that promoted the benefits of a non-medicalized birth.

"Women's expectations and attitudes about birth are shaped by various sources of information long before they become pregnant, with one of the most popular being the media, and in particular, magazines," Young said. "We found that women who were exposed to a magazine article endorsing childbirth with no medical intervention, were more likely to change their intention towards having a more natural birth."

Young said the findings provided preliminary support for a social communications strategy to offset the current information bias towards a medicalized birth, which could contribute to reducing the rates and dangers of medically unnecessary intervention for women having babies.

The findings are detailed in the journal Women & Health.