Report Looks at Trends in Maternal Care in 2026

By Matt Phillion

A new report on maternal and infant health from ProgenyHealth provides key findings and predictions for 2026. With maternal mortality highest among the world’s high-income nations, the report looks at this looming crisis fueled by health disparities, federal policy changes, reproductive health restrictions, access challenges, and maternity deserts.

Top of the list of findings in the report: The maternal mental health crisis will continue to deepen.

Another report finds that as much as 96% of the potential birth-giving population lives in areas facing a shortage of mental health professions, while more and more maternal deaths in the U.S. are attributed to mental health concerns than any other cause.

“One of the interesting things with this year’s treads versus last year’s report is that in years past, we’re often seeing trends about innovation or emerging issues,” says Susan Torroella, CEO of ProgenyHealth. “This year, it’s a lot about the system and the pressures caused by the system. Those pressures are causing things to break and putting more challenges onto all the stakeholders in this ecosystem.”

This year’s top five trends converge into an urgent message about policy, access, and cost, Torroella says.

“There’s a shift in that some of these topics are no longer background noise. They’re there and they’re real,” says Madeline Szabo, RN, senior VP of Clinical Operations with ProgenyHealth. “We’re talking less about a single clinical trend and more about the impact on the continuity of care. We’re not looking at things in isolation but rather patient needs from beginning to end, and mental health is part of that. Access to care is part of that.”

By background noise, Szabo explains, she means that it’s an ongoing challenge constantly running throughout the continuum of care, but now the attention has shifted to dealing with these challenges every day at the forefront.

“Overall, the mental health challenge is about supply and demand. There’s demand, there’s need for mental health and it’s greater than the supply,” says Torroella. “And the supply challenges are exacerbated by reimbursement issues.”

“There are deserts where we don’t have the provider network,” agrees Szabo. “But also, we’re getting better at assessing mental health impacts. Where once a mental health diagnosis was considered a horrible diagnosis, but in reality, anxiety is really growing in this country. We’re bombarded with input. We’re expanding what mental health really encompasses and when you throw anxiety on top of that, you’re going to flood the system even more.”

There is improved identification of those issues, but there’s nowhere to send those referrals so those patients can focus on their health and achieve better outcomes, Szabo explains.

“Our team is good at addressing a sense of urgency, triaging patients and stopping at nothing to help that member no matter how many calls it takes,” says Torroella.

Growing closures, rising costs

Access is difficult to address when we’re also seeing a wave of maternity service closures across rural America, changing how we need to look at how perinatal and postpartum care should be structured.

“I wish this had a simple answer,” says Torroella. “Even if you have access to care, you might only be seeing a physician for five or 10 minutes. And what happens in the days and weeks between visits?”

“Thinking of behavioral health in particular, one of my nurses had to call 13 behavioral health providers before they could get one of our members seen,” says Szabo. “And this is with a healthy pregnancy. What if we don’t have a healthy pregnancy, if we’re anticipating a NICU baby? The services just aren’t there.”

“We need care coordination that can help close those gaps,” says Torroella. “Education to help the patient between visits. Solving for social determinants of health—if there’s a barrier, we can solve that with you.”

“I expect to see the influence of telehealth get bigger,” says Szabo. “Being able to use telehealth in some specialty areas. I also think we’ll need to tap into adjunct services like midwives or doulas, folks who are highly trained and able to support members with the type of care they want.”

Rising financial pressures

With rising premiums, escalating costs, and the long-term expense of managing pregnancy-related complications, there’s a growing need to rethink how and where maternal services are delivered.

“We talk about things that are working in the system and are not working,” says Szabo. “Telehealth worked during COVID, why can’t it work now? It’s an opportunity that could generate new channels.”

Meet the patients where they are and don’t expect them to go where the system says care must be rendered, Szabo explains.

“I think it takes the collective voice to make this happen,” says Torroella. “Organizations like the March of Dimes does tremendous work and are very vocal. We’re seeing increased coverage for doulas and midwives because of these collective voices.”

The vaccine discussion

The report also finds that as vaccine policy in the U.S. becomes more of a patchwork of recommendations, mandates, and exceptions, as much as a third of Americans have doubts about the safety of infant vaccine protocols.

“It’s an interesting time period where not all of the traditional voices of information are saying the same thing: the CDC vs. the American Association of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,” says Torroella. “This presents an interesting dilemma. On our end, we defer to the medical associations: AAP, ACOG. We’re not inventing policy or scientific research, we’re looking at what the medical experts are saying and refer members to that information. We always recommend they talk to their physician.”

“The role of our staff and team here is that of an advisory role. We hear their concerns, listen to where they are struggling to make a decision and the anxiety that brings with it,” says Szabo. “We want to make sure they can ask the right questions of their physicians and providers and are empowered to take some responsibility and accountability, but they need to have and understand the information and make sure they’re heard. We’re not here to judge, we’re here to make sure they’re informed and have what they need to make that choice.”

Premium increases and care gaps

The 2025 federal government shutdown was the longest in the country’s history—and at the center of it was the debate over subsidies tied to the ACA Marketplace premiums. Despite this, there’s been no legislative action on the issue at this point.

“This is a concern. One of the things our team tries to do is look for opportunities that may bring financial relief, ways resources could be used differently,” says Szabo. “We screen for social determinants of health and look at issues that are impacting someone’s health outcomes, including transportation, housing, access, if they feel safe.”

They use creative thought processes to help members adjust and pivot their resources to get the most out of the funds they do have.

“We want to make sure they’re getting the most out of their financial budget,” says Szabo.

“We first and foremost want to make sure they get all the benefits their health plan provides. This can be confusing, and we want to listen to them and their challenges,” says Torroella. “But both clinical risks and social determinants of health can be equally impactful and harmful. If their plan doesn’t have a certain benefit, we’re able to help solve for some of those resource issues the member may have.”

A trend Torroella points to as one to watch is people losing their coverage due to non-renewed subsidies.

“This gets back to systemic pressures,” she says. “More people who don’t have coverage means more pressure on the system. Hospitals have to treat those patients, which then adds economic pressure on the hospital. We can’t solve the whole thing now, but how can we make sure pregnant moms get access to the care they need? And make sure babies have appropriate care and can be discharged safely and as soon as they can?”

A lot of this year’s challenges are not surprising because the signs were there already, Torroella notes.

“It’s always interesting looking back at previous reports where other trends are still very much present. We’d talked weather impacting care in 2024 and we kind of wish we weren’t right, but it underscores what we need to do for members during these storms in early 2026.”

“We consider climate factors as social determinant of health,” says Szabo. “We have policies and workflows written around that so we can triage and prioritize high-risk maternity and high-risk NICU population patients, particularly those who are at home on power-dependent devices.”

Reports like this allow the opportunity to look at the stats and identify ways to address those trends to get ahead of them.

“We want to provide these members what they need, meet them where they are, and realize it’s a population that needs help and needs someone to hear their voices,” says Szabo.

Matt Phillion is a freelance writer covering healthcare, cybersecurity, and more. He can be reached at matthew.phillion@gmail.com.