Telehealth Bolsters Maternal Care Outcomes, Patient Satisfaction

A new study from the Annals of Internal Medicine found that replacing or supplementing in-person maternal healthcare with telehealth led to positive clinical outcomes and high levels of patient satisfaction.

The US has the highest maternal death rate among high-income countries. Following the rise in healthcare access barriers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pregnant and postpartum women especially faced great uncertainty.

To battle this issue, researchers sought to determine the efficacy of telehealth use in maternal healthcare through a review of previous studies, which included 28 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 14 observational studies.

They found that patient-reported outcomes from telehealth interventions were similar to, if not better, than those that resulted from in-person care. This was particularly true when treating conditions relating to mental health, general maternal care, and diabetes during pregnancy.

Further, researchers observed that strategies such as phone-based psychotherapy and home monitoring devices led to positive results such as reduced anxiety and depression and high satisfaction levels among women seeking maternal care.

Using telehealth to supplement prenatal care visits for low-risk pregnancies also resulted in similar clinical outcomes and higher patient satisfaction versus usual in-person care.

Other areas the studies in the review focused on, such as hypertension, breastfeeding, weight gain during pregnancy, smoking cessation, and asthma, lacked sufficient information to confirm the efficacy of telehealth.

In addition, telehealth's impact on access to maternal care was an understudied area that remains important because of the difficulties many face when accessing technological resources. Other necessary areas of study include defining any potential harms of telehealth, along with the collection of evidence in clinical settings.

Regarding limitations, researchers noted the use of solely English-language articles and a lack of information regarding the differences among people who faced disparities.

However, based on the study results, researchers concluded that telehealth holds great promise for use in maternal healthcare.

But they also noted that "future research should focus on larger studies with broader inclusion criteria, examine effects of telehealth interventions in rural populations, and evaluate outcomes based on population characteristics to inform the effect of telehealth on health disparities and health equity and potential harms of telehealth interventions."

Previously, various studies have shown that telehealth can help improve maternal healthcare.

A study published in December 2021 found that the application of telehealth in perinatal mental health services for mothers and infants led to positive outcomes, particularly in terms of accessibility. During pregnancy, women often experience mental health disorders that can influence their child. After transitioning therapy services to a virtual setting, researchers noticed increased completion rates.

Further, there may be various benefits associated with adding telehealth to breastfeeding support services. Trinity Health of New England recently implemented a virtual breastfeeding support program, which provided pregnant and postpartum women with virtual access to a network of lactation consultants.