Knowledge Denhere
1,2* 
1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Rotunda Hospital, Dublin 1, Dublin, Ireland
2 School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
Abstract
Public health emergencies expose pregnant and postpartum women to disrupted maternity care, food insecurity, violence, displacement, bereavement, social isolation, infection, and loss of income. Mental health and psychosocial support remains essential, but the same exposures also disturb sleep and affect stress, immune, and metabolic pathways, with possible effects on the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Biological plausibility does not make a biomarker clinically useful. This Perspective sets out an evidence-calibrated biosocial framework that separates services that should be delivered now, routinely available information that should alter care, and technologies that remain investigational. It also defines a minimum workflow for disrupted systems and treats digital tools as ways to extend care rather than prerequisites for it. Biomarkers, microbiome profiling, multi-omics, and targeted biological interventions should remain research tools until they show incremental clinical value, feasibility, safety, reproducibility, affordability, and equity across settings.