Closing the Six-Week Gap in Postpartum Care: Why Birth Recovery Needs a Standard of Care
Discover the limitations of the six-week postpartum visit, why birth recovery needs a new standard of care, and how Medbridge’s new digital Postpartum Care programs help provide more proactive, continuous support.
February 13, 2026
9 min. read
In the United States alone, there are approximately 3.6 million births annually,1 making childbirth one of the most common medical events. Yet amid the excitement of welcoming a new baby, the recovery of the mother is often overlooked. Postpartum recovery is physically demanding and emotionally complex, but in practice it’s still largely defined by a single milestone: the six-week follow-up visit.
After giving birth, most patients are scheduled for a single check-in with their OB-GYN or midwife around four to six weeks postpartum. At this visit, providers typically assess a few key things: physical healing (including incision or perineal recovery), bleeding, pain, contraception, mood screening for postpartum depression, and clearance to resume physical activities like exercise or sex.2
For many patients, this appointment represents the first—and sometimes only—touchpoint focused on the mother’s recovery after hospital discharge. Here’s the issue: the most intense phase of recovery occurs well before that visit. In the absence of structured guidance, education, or support during those early weeks, many new parents are left to navigate recovery on their own.
In practice, the six-week visit becomes a catch-all—one appointment expected to do the work of an entire recovery plan—addressing physical recovery, mental health, contraception, and future care planning all at once. It was never designed to carry that weight. It’s reactive rather than proactive, and it assumes recovery is linear and uncomplicated—but for many patients, it isn’t.
A common medical event without a standard of care
During the first weeks after birth, patients are largely on their own while recovering from a major medical—and often surgical—event. Among annual births, about one-third involve a cesarean delivery3—a major abdominal surgical procedure with a more complex and extended recovery than vaginal birth.
For cesarean section births, there is typically a visit one to two weeks later to examine the incision, but minimal structured guidance is provided on safe movement, core or pelvic floor recovery, managing pain, or understanding what’s normal versus concerning. If issues arise before the six-week visit—pain, mobility problems, incontinence, fear of movement, or mental health concerns—patients often wait weeks to raise them, or never do. Not because they don’t matter, but because the system hasn’t made room for them yet.
Birth is physically traumatic, yet recovery expectations rarely reflect that reality. Unlike other surgeries, postpartum patients are expected to resume familial responsibilities immediately while caring for a newborn… and managing sleep deprivation. Pain, weakness, pelvic floor symptoms, and uncertainty are frequently normalized—and therefore under reported and untreated. Without structured support, patients may delay care, overexert themselves, or seek help only when symptoms become more severe.
Why the current system falls short
Despite the need for postpartum care, the United States lacks a standardized care program comparable to what patients receive after joint replacement, abdominal surgery, or even less invasive procedures. For most births, there is no routine rehabilitation plan, no structured education on safe movement, and no consistent guidance on what recovery should look like day to day. For one of the most common medical events in the country, that should give us pause. The result is a system that treats postpartum recovery as something to endure rather than something to actively support. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) now advises that new moms connect with their OB-GYNs several times during the 12 weeks after birth, with the first checkup within three weeks, but this is not a widely adopted standard.4
Many advocates point to postpartum models in countries like France, where postpartum care is treated as a standard, medically necessary phase of recovery. This model uses proactive rehabilitation and home support to reduce long-term complications and empower new mothers. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the lack of routine follow-up, limited access to pelvic rehabilitation, and reliance on a single six-week check contribute to gaps in education, delayed intervention, and unmet recovery needs.
The French model works because it’s embedded in France’s healthcare structure, but the U.S. system is built very differently. The absence of a standard of care is not due to a lack of need—it’s due to structural constraints. Provider shortages, maternity care deserts, and limited access to pelvic health specialists make universal in-person follow-up unrealistic.
And even when referrals are made, no-show rates remain high, particularly in the early postpartum period when logistics are hardest. One study found that nearly 57 percent of mothers did not attend a postpartum follow-up visit three to eight weeks after giving birth.5 As a result, many patients receive minimal education before discharge and are left to self-manage symptoms, unsure what’s normal, what’s concerning, or when to seek additional help.
While the U.S. is unlikely to replicate the French model exactly, it can adopt the principle behind it: postpartum recovery deserves structured, proactive support. France built its postpartum model on a centralized system with aligned incentives and workforce capacity. The U.S. must solve the same problem with different tools—and waiting for systemic reform is not a plan. Digital-first, scalable care models offer the most practical way to close the postpartum care gap now.
A practical starting point: Digital care pathways
The postpartum period is chaotic by nature. In-person appointments are difficult to attend, schedules are unpredictable, and recovery happens in short windows of time. While the current U.S. system cannot realistically provide in-person rehabilitation to every postpartum patient, it can provide something essential: a consistent starting point.
Hybrid care programs are not a convenience—they are a necessity in the postpartum period. They meet patients where they are, providing accessible, on-demand support that fits into daily life, reduces friction, and sustains engagement when in-person care is hardest to access. For many patients, clear guidance restores a sense of control at a time when much feels uncertain. Assigning every patient a digital postpartum recovery program establishes a baseline standard of care where one has never consistently existed.
That’s what is offered in Medbridge One Care, our hybrid care software platform that helps providers offer movement-based medicine to patients. One Care brings together best-in-class Home Exercise Programs, Patient-Reported Outcomes, Remote Therapeutic Monitoring, and our hybrid MSK care platform Medbridge Pathways to help establish a baseline standard of care. Pathways now offers digital Postpartum Care programs that span from early birth recovery to 12 months postpartum. These were designed to increase access and meet patients they are in their postpartum journey to improve symptoms and quality of life. Pathways can be personalized by the assigning provider to meet the patient’s unique needs. Each pathway is broken into multiple phases that build off each other, allowing patients to progress at their own pace. Individual phases are focused on a set of exercises designed to be completed in 15 minutes or less. Pathways are designed with the following structure:
1-to-2-week phases
4-to-12-phase programs (longer for conditions that require longer courses of care)
3 to 5 default therapeutic exercises in each phase, plus 25 to 30 alternative exercise options available for clinician customization
2 to 5 patient education videos or articles per phase, helping patients understand their condition, manage their symptoms, and make lifestyle behavior changes.
Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) prompted at baseline and then repeated on a weekly or monthly cadence
For Birth Recovery Pathways, PROMS used include pain and PFMS (Perinatal Function and Mobility Scale)
For Postpartum Pathways, PROMs used include pain, SANE (Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation), and PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System)
Every program is reviewed and approved by our Medical Advisory Board, which covers a broad spectrum of clinical roles. Pathways delivers evidence-based education, early movement guidance, and safe exercises tailored to the postpartum timeline. The programs also help patients understand what recovery should feel like—and when it’s time to reach out to their physician and seek additional support. This approach does not replace clinical care; it ensures that no patient leaves the system without guidance while they wait for their six-week follow-up.
Birth Recovery Pathways are for patients in the early postpartum period, within the first twelve weeks after childbirth. These pathways support early recovery, promote healing, and guide patients toward longer-term postpartum care when appropriate. There are differentiated tracks based on delivery type—vaginal or Cesarean birth. This includes programs like:
Birth Recovery: Vaginal Birth
Birth Recovery: Vaginal Birth After Perinatal Loss
Birth Recovery: C-Section Recovery
Postpartum Pathways are for patients with low back pain, pelvic girdle pain, or urinary incontinence six or more weeks after childbirth. Postpartum incontinence pathways are further differentiated by type of incontinence (stress, urge, or mixed). This includes programs like:
Postpartum Low Back Pain
Postpartum Anterior/Posterior Pelvic Girdle Pain
Postpartum Urinary Incontinence
Establishing a foundation for standardized postpartum care
Standardizing postpartum recovery does not require solving every problem at once—it requires deciding that postpartum recovery deserves a standard of care. Introducing scalable, evidence-based digital care pathways gives health systems a practical way to move beyond the limitations of the six-week check and into more proactive, continuous support. Medbridge Pathways helps establish that foundation by improving the patient experience, building trust, and creating consistency where there has historically been none.
Closing the six-week gap starts with a simple shift in mindset: postpartum recovery begins at birth, not at the follow-up visit. And no patient should be left to navigate that window alone.
If your organization is ready to move past awareness and into action, Medbridge Pathways offers a place to start. To learn more about how Medbridge Pathways can support postpartum recovery and help provide more equitable care, request a demo today.
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