{
  "id": 11464758,
  "title": "Moms overcome barriers to postpartum care with help from patient navigators",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/moms-overcome-barriers-to-postpartum-care-with-help-from-patient",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-02T15:00:13.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Medical Xpress",
    "slug": "medical-xpress",
    "url": "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-moms-barriers-postpartum-patient.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Navigating postpartum care can be challenging for new mothers, especially those with low incomes or complex social needs. These barriers may include limited health literacy, unreliable transportation, difficulty navigating the healthcare system, lack of childcare, or insecure housing. A new Northwestern Medicine study, published in JAMA Health Forum, has found that patient navigators can significantly improve the transition to postpartum care for low-income pregnant individuals. Patient navigators are trained guides who work alongside the healthcare team to help patients access care and resources. The study, which included 405 pregnant individuals at Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago from 2020 to 2024, found that patients paired with a navigator were more likely to attend postpartum visits (96% vs. 80%) and primary care appointments at one year (57% vs. 30%) than those who received usual care. Patient navigators helped create postpartum care plans, schedule and attend appointments, coordinate social needs, communicate with healthcare providers, and improve patients' health literacy. The medical care team also appreciated the navigators' assistance, as they helped with tasks such as rescheduling appointments and completing administrative duties. One patient navigator, Viridiana Carmona-Barrera, shared a story of helping a pregnant patient with chronic health conditions who faced transportation and childcare challenges, enabling the patient to attend a critical appointment. The study's authors hope that patient navigation programs will become more widely adopted, ultimately leading to improved long-term health outcomes for women and their families.",
  "summary": "While the transition to motherhood can be challenging for anyone, barriers such as inadequate health literacy, unreliable transportation, difficulty navigating a complex health care system, limited access to child care or insecure housing can be the tipping point between a new mom accessing needed care or going without it.",
  "key_points": [
    "Patient navigators improve postpartum care attendance for low-income mothers.",
    "Navigators help create care plans, schedule appointments, and coordinate social needs.",
    "Study published in JAMA Health Forum shows 96% postpartum visit rate with navigators."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}