About a quarter of pregnant women are not receiving prenatal care in their first trimester, a new CDC report shows.
The analysis, released Feb. 18, is based on national birth certificate data from the agency’s National Vital Statistics System.
1. In 2024 — the most recent data available — 75.5% of pregnant women received early prenatal care, down from a peak of 78.3% in 2021 after five years of steady growth. The decline in early prenatal care was broadly observed across women of all childbearing ages and racial and ethnic groups.
3. At the same time, more women are receiving care later. Second-trimester prenatal care increased from 15.4% in 2021 to 17.3% in 2024, and the percentage of women receiving late or no prenatal care increased from 6.3% to 7.3%.
4. In the District of Columbia and five states — Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas — more than 1 in 10 women had late or no prenatal care.
The findings suggest more women are delaying prenatal care until later in their pregnancies, though the CDC report does not identify contributing factors.
The trend comes as hospitals and health systems intensify efforts to improve maternal health outcomes and reduce long-standing disparities. Even as birth rates decline nationally, a growing share of patients are entering pregnancy with chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, and access gaps persist in many rural and low-income communities following hospital and maternity unit closures.
See the full report here.
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