Patient navigators linked to better postpartum care in Northwestern Medicine study

Assigning a patient navigator to low-income pregnant individuals was linked to better postpartum health care — care after childbirth — and stronger connections to primary care that continued beyond delivery, according to ScienceDaily. The study from Northwestern Medicine was published on 2 October 2026 in JAMA Health Forum. The researchers said it is among the first studies to describe what an ideal model of postpartum care in the United States could look like.

The study included 405 pregnant individuals receiving care at Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago between 2020 and 2024. Participants assigned a navigator began working with that person near the end of pregnancy and continued receiving support through the first year after delivery, according to the report. Compared with patients who received usual postpartum care without a navigator, those who worked with one were more likely to receive postpartum health care and remain connected to primary care.

The navigators spoke both English and Spanish. According to ScienceDaily, they worked with patients to develop postpartum care plans that were shared with the medical team, scheduled and attended appointments, helped coordinate transportation and childcare, communicated with doctors and nurses, and helped patients make sense of complicated medical information. They also worked to strengthen health literacy and give patients greater confidence in managing their own care.

"Pregnancy and the postpartum periods are complex, and people often deprioritize themselves, particularly if they don't have much support or have complex social needs," said corresponding author Dr. Lynn Yee, chief of maternal-fetal medicine in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine physician. "Combined with a fragmented healthcare system, many people do not receive the care they need." Yee said this makes "a perfect storm of suboptimal women's health in this very key postpartum period, which is when we know many women drop out of care."

Yee said patient navigation is already widely used in cancer care and is funded by Medicaid, the US public health insurance program for people with low incomes, but has received far less attention in postpartum care and has remained understudied and underused. The researchers said this is the first large-scale study to investigate the benefits of patient navigation among pregnant and postpartum individuals. They said the results could provide a foundation for additional research and potentially support future funding for postpartum navigation programs.

ScienceDaily reported that limited health literacy, unreliable transportation, difficulty dealing with a complicated healthcare system, lack of childcare and unstable housing can all determine whether a new mother receives needed care. The report also cited previous research showing that complications such as gestational diabetes (diabetes developed during pregnancy) and preeclampsia (a pregnancy-related high blood pressure condition) can affect health years later, making continued medical follow-up important.