For many women, gaps in maternal health care begin long before pregnancy and continue well after childbirth.
Limited preventive care, untreated chronic conditions and inadequate postpartum support can leave patients vulnerable throughout their reproductive lives. At the 2026 HealthStack Conference, Jessica Shepherd, the chief medical officer of Hers, argued that improving maternal health requires moving beyond a system that treats pregnancy as an isolated medical event.
“The traditional model is what’s failing us,” Shepherd said, citing persistent barriers to care and the U.S.’ poor maternal health outcomes.
The discussion, “State of Maternal Health and the Digital Future,” was moderated by Chemen Neal, vice president of academic medicine and strategic integration at IU Health Medical Group.
Maternal Health Begins Before Pregnancy
Shepherd said traditional health care often separates women’s needs into distinct stages, overlooking how chronic conditions influence pregnancy outcomes.
“Pregnancy showcases what the infrastructure of someone’s health really is,” Shepherd said. “If the infrastructure prior was not getting the care that it needed, then it’s only highlighting that during the pregnancy.”
She explained hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are a few conditions that may be present in women before pregnancy that become more apparent as the baby-to-be places additional demands on the body.
Neal emphasized that maternal health disparities extend beyond delivery rooms. This reality is especially prevalent for Black women, who experience disproportionate risks during pregnancy and postpartum recovery.
For clinicians, the discussion reinforced the importance of managing chronic conditions before pregnancy and addressing barriers that prevent patients from receiving continuous care.
Digital Tools Could Bridge Gaps in Care
Shepherd described telehealth, asynchronous messaging and remote monitoring as ways to extend care. Beyond scheduled appointments, remote methods could help clinicians identify symptoms, monitor conditions and respond to patients facing treatment delays.
“Physicians are the bridge between technology and the patient population,” Shepherd said, explaining that clinicians understand patients’ needs through daily interactions and can help developers design more effective tools.
Neal questioned whether digital platforms could also help address racial bias, particularly when Black women’s symptoms and pain have historically been dismissed. Shepherd suggested that tracking pain severity, frequency and changes over time could help patients communicate their experiences and provide clinicians with additional information.
The goal is to support clinical judgment and improve communication, rather than replace meaningful patient relationships.
The Overlooked Postpartum Period
Neal described postpartum recovery as a particularly vulnerable period, noting that many preventable maternal deaths in Indiana occur after childbirth.
Shepherd characterized postpartum recovery as “kind of this forgotten period” for mothers, explaining that attention often shifts almost entirely to the newborn. That shift in attention can leave mothers managing complications, chronic conditions or mental health concerns without adequate postpartum support.
Shepherd pointed to limited community support and the difficulty of attending postpartum appointments while recovering from childbirth and caring for a newborn.
“Usually you get a recording, leave a message, leave the message in a portal,” Shepherd said. “And so that alone creates these missed moments for women in a time of need.”
She questioned whether traditional office hours and scheduled visits adequately address patients’ needs during recovery.
“That’s always what health care was about. In a time of need, who’s going to provide that care for you?” Shepherd said. “And we’ve moved away from that.”
Shepherd said digital communication could help address some of those gaps by giving mothers more opportunities to reach health professionals between appointments.
Keeping Clinicians at the Center of Innovation
Despite her enthusiasm for digital care, Shepherd cautioned that technology developers can overlook the human relationships essential to effective treatment.
“Technology often, I’m not saying always, but often will miss the humanistic side,” she said, arguing that AI should improve efficiency without replacing trust between clinicians and patients.
She also warned that AI systems trained on incomplete or unrepresentative medical data risk reproducing existing disparities. Neal emphasized that technology should allow physicians to spend more time supporting patients, particularly during difficult diagnoses and treatment decisions.
Shepherd called for stronger clinical involvement in technology development, diverse representation in research and products that can evolve in response to patient feedback.
Asked what successful digital maternal care could accomplish within five years, Shepherd pointed to measurable improvements.
“We would see better data and better outcomes,” she said, expressing hope that maternal mortality rates could decline as health systems improve access and continuity of care.
For clinicians and health systems, the challenge is to ensure digital innovation translates into earlier identification of maternal health risks, more accessible postpartum care and stronger continuity of care before, during and after pregnancy.
