A new Harris Poll study, Where Maternal Health Support Is Falling Short in America, highlights persistent gaps in maternal healthcare, including mental health support, access to care, patient education, and postpartum follow-up. The findings show that women want a healthcare system that offers more information, stronger support, and continuous care before, during, and after childbirth. The need is especially urgent for Black women, who face a 166 percent higher rate of severe maternal complications—such as preeclampsia, hemorrhage, and sepsis—than white women.
A Personal Mission to Close Gaps in Care
For Christina Lojek, senior research manager at the Harris Poll, the research is deeply personal. Her interest in the issue began shortly after she gave birth to her first daughter.
“I had expectations of the pregnancy and birth process and felt kind of disappointed,” she tells BlackDoctor. “I felt that there were gaps in care.”
Lojek believed the system could do better—and that she wasn’t the only one who felt this way. The study found that 88 percent of women say more needs to be done to make childbirth safer in the U.S., up from 83 percent in 2024.
“This was something I felt super passionate about,” Lojek adds. “The first year that I worked on it, the survey was around 10 questions, and now we’re closer to a 20-question survey. Some of them we’ve kind of repeated year over year, just to kind of gauge whether opinions and experiences are changing, while I’ve also brought in new questions, either inspired by my own experiences or what we’re seeing in the media landscape at the time.”
What has surprised Lojek most over the years is how many women feel they must fight for the care they need. Sixty percent say women like them must fight for necessary medical care, while 42 percent of women who are or have been pregnant report encountering barriers to pregnancy or childbirth care.
“Maternal health is no longer a niche issue. Our research shows that millions of women are navigating pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery while facing gaps in care, support, and information. If we want better outcomes for mothers and babies, we need to stop treating maternal care as something that ends at delivery and start building a system that supports women, physically, emotionally, and practically, before, during, and long after childbirth.”
Christina Lojek, Senior Research Manager at the Harris Poll
Mental Health Support and Patient Education
Mental health remains a consistent concern. Thirty-six percent of women who are or have been pregnant report receiving a mental health diagnosis during their pregnancy journey, most commonly anxiety (25 percent) or depression (22 percent). Fifty-six percent experienced postpartum mental health issues, and 52 percent of those women received subpar support or none at all.
Sixty-five percent of women who have been pregnant want providers to discuss postpartum depression proactively during prenatal visits. Yet 46 percent received insufficient information or resources about postpartum depression from their provider—or none at all.
“I think that’s a clear sign that something needs to be done in terms of patient education,” Lojek says. “And I think the providers are really the ones that have to step up and fill that need.”
That lack of education reflects Lojek’s own experience. She felt that many prenatal visits focused on moving quickly through basic checks—the baby’s heart rate, fundal height, and any immediate questions—before scheduling the next appointment.
She says many providers rely too heavily on patients to ask the right questions. She also points to the limited depth of education courses in her area, which covered familiar warnings such as avoiding alcohol and smoking but offered little additional detail.
“I think patient education is going to be a huge thing, and I also think that partner education would play a big role in helping this situation, because a lot of times women dealing with mental health issues may not be able to recognize it, but their partner could, if they knew what to look out for and what action to take,” Lojek notes.
Rethinking Postpartum Care
The study supports that call for broader education and follow-up. Eighty-six percent of women say more postpartum follow-up should be part of standard care, underscoring the need for continued support after childbirth.
As Lojek emphasizes, care should not end after childbirth; it should continue well into the postpartum period.
For Lojek, comprehensive postpartum care should go beyond a single traditional checkup and include several visits over time.
“At six weeks out, I was still trying to figure out what exactly I was doing,” Lojek shares. “I remember going into these appointments, one, not knowing what to expect, and two, so tired. I don’t even remember what happened.”
She recommends offering more appointments, spacing them out, and building in additional check-ins.
The study also points to home visits as a potentially crucial source of support during the postpartum period.
“One of the other findings we had in the report was that women want to see home health visits included. I think that would be huge as well, because sometimes people can’t make it to appointments. They don’t have transportation. They have a newborn. They’re trying to, follow a schedule with their baby,” Lojek explains. “I think that could potentially alleviate some of the barriers to getting extra care.”
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, Lojek and the Harris Poll team plan to maintain their focus on mental health while exploring patient education about specific health conditions.
“Given the maternal mortality rate in the U.S., there’s probably a clear need for patient education on things like preeclampsia,” Lojek notes. “Stuff like that could benefit a lot of people, mothers and babies.”
More work is clearly needed.
Building Support and Speaking Up
In the meantime, Lojek encourages women who feel dismissed, uninformed, or unsupported during pregnancy or postpartum to build a strong support system.
“It’s really important to have support people on your side, whether it’s a partner, a family member, or a doula. I think that’s huge, especially going through labor and delivery. It’s hard to advocate for yourself in those high-stress, high-pain moments, and having somebody there for you is extremely important—somebody you know understands and respects your wishes,” Lojek notes.
Lojek shares that she and her husband felt like deer in headlights during her first delivery. Believing she could have benefited from a doula, she chose to work with one during her second pregnancy.
She also emphasizes the importance of not being afraid to push back on healthcare providers.
“I suffered postpartum hemorrhages for both of my deliveries, and they said if you suffered it the first time, you’re not likely to suffer it a second time,” Lojek notes.
Even so, she trusted her intuition when something did not feel right.
“The second time around… I knew something didn’t feel right, and I kept asking them to check me, and they’re like, no, you’re fine. And my doula finally went out, grabbed a nurse, and insisted. And sure enough, I was having another postpartum hemorrhage,” Lojek shares.
Her experience reinforces her message that women should not be afraid to challenge providers when they believe something is wrong.
Her final message?
“We need to do better. We need to do better for mothers and for babies. I hope this research moves the needle a little bit,” she concludes.