How Patient Navigators Are Closing the Gap in Postpartum Healthcare

In a study of 405 low-income pregnant individuals at Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago between 2020 and 2024, pairing expectant and new mothers with trained patient navigators from late pregnancy through the first year after delivery led to better postpartum health and more consistent engagement with primary care for years to come. It is among the first large-scale efforts to define what ideal postpartum care in this country could actually look like.

What a patient navigator actually does

In cancer care, patient navigators are routine, and Medicaid even funds them there. In postpartum care, that role has been largely absent, which is part of why so many of us leave that first postpartum visit box unchecked on the calendar.

In the Northwestern program, navigators spoke both English and Spanish and worked alongside the clinical team. They sat down with each patient to build a postpartum care plan, scheduled and attended appointments, coordinated social supports such as transportation and childcare so logistics were not the barrier, and translated complex medical information into something usable at home. The emphasis, the authors note, was not just on showing up but on building self-efficacy, which is the quieter muscle that decides whether you keep going back.

Why this window matters so much

We have long known that the postpartum period is when many patients quietly drop out of care. Pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia can shape cardiovascular and metabolic health for decades, so the handoff from obstetric care back to a primary care home is not optional follow-up. Even straightforward deliveries can be derailed by postpartum depression, housing insecurity, gaps in partner support, or unsafe situations at home, which is exactly where a navigator steps in before small obstacles become missed appointments.

The work was led by Dr. Lynn Yee, chief of maternal-fetal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "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," Yee noted. "Combined with a fragmented health care system, many people do not receive the care they need." "That 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," she added.

What to ask your own provider

If you are pregnant or newly postpartum and reading this between nap schedules, here is the question worth bringing to your next visit: does our practice, or our hospital, offer any form of patient navigation, and if not, who on the staff can help me build a written postpartum plan before I deliver? The navigators in this study worked best when the plan was created during pregnancy, not after you were already sleep-deprived at home.

If your clinic has not heard of this model yet, it is reasonable to ask whether they are open to learning from programs like the one at Prentice, and to bring up the JAMA Health Forum study by name so the conversation has a clear starting point.