Over a five-year period, 24% of pregnant and postpartum women in a study reported unmet health care needs due to cost; 60% reported health care unaffordability.

“Our study suggests that financial hardship is exceedingly common among the birthing population in the United States, with many parents experiencing unmet health care need due to cost, health care unaffordability, and general financial stress,” says senior author Michelle Moniz, an obstetrician gynecologist at University of Michigan Health Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital.

More than half of the women in the five-year study also described general financial stress over other expenses, including monthly bills, housing costs, minimum payments on credit cards, or maintaining standard of living.

The findings, which appear in JAMA Network Open, include a national sample of 3,509 peripartum women, weighted to represent more than 1 million women, between 2013 to 2018.

“Prenatal and postpartum visits provide essential preventive services for both women and infants, including vaccinations, screening for gestational diabetes and anemia, and an opportunity for early diagnosis and management of pregnancy complications,” Moniz says. “But for some, the cost of health care is a barrier to utilizing these recommended services.”

Read the full article about new mom healthcare by Beata Mostafavi at Futurity.