Nearly 1 in 4 pregnant women are skipping early prenatal care. A veteran nurse explains why that should worry all of us.

For years, the numbers were moving in the right direction. More pregnant women were getting into a doctor’s office early, more complications were being caught before they became emergencies, and the conversation around maternal health was finally getting the attention it deserved. That progress just reversed. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals a sharp prenatal care decline across the country. The share of pregnant women receiving first trimester prenatal care dropped from 78.3% in 2021 to 75.5% in 2024. Meanwhile, the percentage of women receiving very late or no prenatal care at all rose from 6.3% to 7.3% during the same period. The declines were steepest among Black, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and American Indian and Alaska Native women. In five states, more than one in ten pregnant women delayed or skipped care entirely. This is not a minor statistical wobble. It’s a reversal of nearly a decade of gains, and it comes at a moment when maternity wards are closing, providers are stretched thin, and the U.S. already has the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy nations. Related Michigan moms could soon have easier access to group prenatal care that’s changing lives We reached out to Linda Hanna, RN, a registered nurse with more than 40 years of experience in maternal health, to help make sense of what’s going on. Linda helped build the maternity and lactation programs at Kaiser Permanente and Cedars-Sinai, and is now the…