Study Shines Light on the Health of American Moms in the Year After Birth

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• launched the Postpartum Assessment of Health Survey (PAHS), the first multi-state representative survey on postpartum health in the year after birth in the U.S

• for people with Medicaid and those who had commercial insurance when they gave birth to better understand the unique needs of each population and how each program benchmarks against the other.

• Approximately 1 in 5 mothers reported delaying or forgoing needed care in the postpartum year regardless of insurance type.

• One in 4 Medicaid beneficiaries reported no health care use at all in the year after birth

• With approximately 12 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries reporting depression symptoms and about 14 percent having anxiety symptoms at one year postpartum, the researchers point to the need for focusing on efforts to expand access to the availability of mental and behavioral health care.

• food insecurity, intimate partner violence, and financial strain

• Medicaid beneficiaries, 20 percent reported not having enough food to feed their family, 57 percent reported financial strain and 7 percent reported experiencing intimate partner violence since giving birth.