Barriers to Postpartum Care: A Mixed Methods Study of Midwestern Postpartum Women

Postpartum care is an opportunity to provide essential follow-up care to people who have given birth, but inequalities in access by race and socioeconomic status (SES) are well-documented. The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth description of the barriers to postpartum care using a mixed-methods design.

Mixed method analyses using convergent design with three stages including (1) bivariate logistic regression of survey data representative of postpartum women in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, (2) thematic qualitative analyses of focus group interviews of survey participants, and (3) bivariate logistic regression and logistic regression meditation analyses using themes operationalized with survey data measures.

In Kalamazoo county, 82.0% of women attended their postpartum visit. White women and women with higher SES were 2.84 (SE = 1.35, p < .001) and 5.73 (SE = 3.10, p < .001) times more likely to attend postpartum visits than women of color and those with lower SES. Qualitative analyses identified four common barriers: (1) misaligned goals for appointments, (2) time and scheduling of appointments, (3) prioritization of children, and (4) material resources and health insurance coverage. The quantitative analyses found mixed support for these barriers and found limited evidence that these barriers mediated the relationship between race or SES and postpartum attendance.

The qualitative findings identify barriers that are amenable to practice-level interventions including changes to scheduling procedures and employing patient-centered care. The quantitative findings further suggest that although inequalities in postpartum care are present, interventions on these barriers may benefit women regardless of race and SES.