Patient navigators significantly improve postpartum care for low-income mothers

A breakdown of the findings

Compared to those who did not receive patient navigation, patients who were paired with a navigator were more likely to:

• Attend postpartum care visits (96% vs. 80% among those receiving usual postpartum care without a patient navigator)
• Be counseled about all needed postpartum topics (65% vs. 51%)
• Have screening and care for postpartum depression (86% vs. 72%) in the critical "fourth trimester" months
• Attend a primary care visit (57% vs. 30%) at one year after giving birth
• Be using their desired family planning method, such as birth control, at one year to help space out their pregnancies (65% vs. 43%)
• Receive preventive health testing (i.e. blood pressure (85% vs 62%), lipids (28% vs 13%) and glucose (31% vs 16%) 

"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. If we can address this gap early and sustain their engagement with healthcare, we can make a difference in the health and well-being of women over the long run."

In cancer care, patient navigation has received widespread adoption, and is even funded by Medicaid, but has been largely underused and understudied in postpartum care, Yee said. This is the first large-scale study to examine the benefits of patient navigation among pregnant and postpartum individuals. The findings lay the groundwork for future research and potential funding for patient navigation.

What patient navigators did, how it helped

In the study of 405 pregnant individuals at Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago between 2020 and 2024, patient navigators were paired with pregnant individuals near the end of their pregnancy and throughout the first year after delivery. The navigators, who spoke both English and Spanish, created postpartum care plans with patients and shared them with the medical team; scheduled and attended appointments; coordinated social needs such as transportation and childcare; communicated with doctors and nurses; helped patients understand complex medical information and develop self-efficacy skills; and improved health literacy.

Dr. Lynn Yee, chief of maternal-fetal medicine, department of obstetrics and gynecology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of MedicineCumulatively not engaging in health-promotion behaviors in the postpartum period has reverberating implications for the family unit, too."

A patient navigator's firsthand account from the study 

Teaching self-sufficiency so navigators were no longer needed

Source:

Northwestern University

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