The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) has released a special statement titled “Transforming the Maternity Care Team Model,” outlining a bold vision for restructuring maternity care to address workforce shortages, improve maternal outcomes, and deliver patient-centered care. As a leader in maternity-focused digital health, Marani Health fully supports this call to action. We believe our platform and mobile app are uniquely positioned to help bring this vision to life through scalable, tech-enabled solutions that optimize care delivery, enhance provider efficiency, and reduce total cost of care.

The State of Maternity Care: A System Under Pressure

The U.S. maternity care system is facing unprecedented challenges. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), maternal mortality rates have more than doubled over the last two decades, disproportionately affecting Black and Indigenous women. Simultaneously, the obstetric workforce is shrinking. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) projects a shortage of 22,000 obstetricians by 2050. These workforce challenges are compounded by geographic disparities, hospital closures, and increasing care complexity.

In this landscape, SMFM’s 2025 Special Statement is both timely and necessary. The document advocates for redesigning maternity care as a multidisciplinary, team-based model that utilizes the full scope of all care providers: obstetricians, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, midwives, nurses, doulas, community health workers, and others. The goal is to ensure more equitable, efficient, and accessible care across the pregnancy continuum.

Marani Health: A Platform Built for the Future of Maternity Care

At Marani Health, we see the SMFM’s vision as a rallying call to further accelerate the transformation of perinatal care. Our technology platform was built to support precisely this kind of collaborative, holistic model. By integrating remote patient monitoring (RPM), population health analytics, and wraparound services into a single, easy-to-use mobile app, we empower both patients and providers to deliver and receive care in a more intelligent, connected, and efficient manner.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) to Extend Reach

One of the SMFM’s primary concerns is the inefficient use of obstetricians’ time and the uneven access to care, particularly in rural and underserved communities. Marani Health’s RPM capabilities allow providers to monitor maternal vital signs, symptoms, and health behaviors from afar, significantly reducing the need for in-person visits while maintaining a high standard of care. RPM can alert providers to early signs of complications like preeclampsia or gestational diabetes, enabling timely interventions that can save lives and reduce costly hospitalizations.

This functionality aligns directly with SMFM’s recommendation to “extend the reach” of obstetricians by leveraging other team members and technologies. RPM enhances collaboration, supports triage, and ensures that the right care is delivered at the right time.

Population Health Analytics to Inform Care Delivery

Another key pillar in SMFM’s statement is the need for data-driven decision-making. Marani’s platform incorporates advanced population health analytics that help payors and providers identify high-risk patients, stratify populations, and allocate resources more effectively.

For example, our analytics engine can flag social determinants of health (SDOH) that may impact pregnancy outcomes such as food insecurity, transportation barriers, or housing instability allowing care teams to proactively intervene. This supports SMFM’s emphasis on addressing structural inequities and tailoring care to the unique needs of each population.

Wraparound Services for Whole-Person Support

SMFM explicitly calls for a broader definition of maternity care that includes behavioral health, social services, lactation consulting, childbirth education, and more. Marani Health embraces this vision through our integrated wraparound services model. Our app connects pregnant individuals with a network of support professionals, including mental health counselors, nutritionists, and health coaches. These services are delivered both virtually and in-person, depending on patient needs and preferences.

We believe wraparound services are essential to improving outcomes and advancing health equity. They address the non-medical but deeply impactful factors that influence maternal well-being and birth outcomes. Marani’s model facilitates seamless coordination among diverse care providers, ensuring patients do not fall through the cracks.

Supporting Providers and Payors Alike

Marani Health doesn’t just improve the patient experience, it also solves real problems for providers and payors.

For providers, our platform reduces administrative burden, improves workflow efficiency, and enhances communication across the care team. This is increasingly critical as clinician burnout reaches record levels. According to the American Medical Association, nearly 45% of physicians report symptoms of burnout, often driven by inefficient systems and documentation overload.

For payors, our model delivers measurable ROI. By preventing complications, avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations, and supporting high-risk pregnancies more effectively, Marani Health contributes to lower total cost of care. Our ability to surface population-level insights also supports value-based care models, which are gaining traction in both Medicaid and commercial insurance.

Fitting Into the Broader Maternity Care Story

The SMFM statement is part of a larger shift toward reimagining maternal health in America. Other key developments reinforcing this trend include:

Marani Health’s solutions are fully aligned with these national priorities. We help translate policy goals into clinical and operational reality. Whether it’s enabling value-based maternity care, supporting Medicaid expansion through scalable technology, or partnering with health systems to redesign care workflows, Marani is ready to lead.

Conclusion: A Moment of Opportunity

The SMFM’s call to transform the maternity care team model is both a challenge and an invitation. It challenges all stakeholders to rethink how care is delivered and to embrace new paradigms that prioritize equity, efficiency, and patient experience. It invites innovators like Marani Health to step forward with solutions that make this transformation not only possible but practical.

At Marani, we’re answering that call. Our platform is already supporting providers, empowering patients, and helping payors reduce costs while improving maternal outcomes. The future of maternity care will be team-based, tech-enabled, and data-driven, and we are proud to be helping build it.