The State of Motherhood
In 2026We surveyed 175 women across every stage of the motherhood journey: trying to conceive, navigating loss, pregnant, postpartum, raising young children, perimenopausal, and beyond. What they told us reveals a quiet crisis the wellness industry has failed to name, and a source of strength it has largely refused to acknowledge.
Faith is carrying modern motherhood
Before the data, this: 75% of women surveyed named faith as a primary coping mechanism. Not therapy. Not self-care. Not community. Faith.
Women described it not as background belief but as active infrastructure — the thing that held them when their bodies, their support systems, and their circumstances did not. It came up in the context of pregnancy loss, postpartum depression, infertility, identity crisis, and the daily weight of raising children without a village.
Several women named Pink Stork's faith integration specifically as the reason they trust the brand. Unprompted. Repeatedly.
That is the lens through which everything that follows should be read.
"She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future." Proverbs 31:25
What women told us
The findings below come directly from 175 women. The data is theirs.
The village is gone.
"No village" was the single most repeated phrase across all open-ended responses. Women are raising children without proximate family support, regardless of marital status, income, or geography. This is a structural shift, not an individual failing. 46% of women rated how understood they feel by the people around them at a 1 or 2 out of 5. Only 21% rated a 4 or 5.
rated how understood they feel a 1 or 2 out of 5
rated a 4 or 5. Only 1 in 5 feel consistently seen.
When the village disappears, women reach for something that doesn't leave. For 75% of the women in this survey, that something is faith.
Women have stopped asking for help.
The most common response to "when it comes to asking for help, which feels most true" was: I don't ask, because I don't want to burden anyone. The second most common: I've learned not to expect it. 64% of women are either not asking for help at all, or asking and coming up empty. Only 14% have a support system that reliably shows up.
The reluctance isn't laziness. It's a learned response to repeated disappointment.
Postpartum rage is the unspoken mental health crisis.
Women repeatedly described an anger-based form of postpartum dysregulation that current screening tools, marketing, and clinical conversations do not capture. The cultural script for postpartum depression is sadness. The lived experience often is not. 74% of women reported feeling overwhelmed. 55% reported feeling burned out. These numbers sit alongside 80% reporting gratitude — often the same woman, in the same season.
Gratitude and overwhelm are not opposites. They coexist. For many women, faith is what makes that coexistence livable.
Secondary infertility and pregnancy after loss are invisible.
Women who have one child and cannot conceive again, or who are pregnant after miscarriage, exist in a category that celebrates new mothers while leaving them without language, community, or support. 11% of respondents are currently navigating fertility or loss.
In open-ended responses, pregnancy loss was one of the most common contexts in which women named faith as what carried them through.
Perimenopause is colliding with active motherhood.
Women in their late 30s and 40s are navigating hormonal change while raising young children. Existing perimenopause solutions assume an empty nest. Most of these women do not have one. 17% of respondents identified perimenopause as a wellness priority. In open-ended responses, it was described as a completely underserved category with no community, no guidance, and no one talking about it honestly.
The wellness industry is overwhelming the women it claims to serve.
The most common product complaint was not quality. It was choice overload. Women described supplement decision fatigue as its own burden. 39% of women rated the wellness industry a 1 or 2 out of 5 for how well it serves women in their situation. Only 26% gave it a 4 or 5.
gave the wellness industry a 1 or 2 out of 5
gave it a 4 or 5. The bar is low. The opportunity is massive.
What they want isn't more options. It's clarity, simplicity, and affordability. They're not looking for more noise. They're looking for someone they trust to cut through it.
Women are giving up pieces of themselves and no one is naming it.
On a scale of 1 (Very Little) to 5 (I Feel Like Myself), women rated how much of themselves they've had to give up in this season. Average: 3.05 out of 5. 41% landed at a 3 — the largest single group. Not devastated. Not whole. Operating at a sustained partial loss of self.
The body and the soul are not separate concerns for these women. They never were.
The next decade of women's wellness will not be won by adding more products.
It will be won by brands willing to simplify. To convene. To name what has gone unnamed. And to honor the spiritual dimension of women's lives rather than edit it out.
The wellness industry has largely ignored this. Pink Stork was built on it. Women don't need another supplement. They need a brand that sees them fully: body, mind, and faith. That has always been the mission. The data says it's also the gap.
She doesn't need more options. She needs to feel less alone, and more like herself.
The gaps she named directly
From open-ended responses. These aren't assumptions. They're her words.
Postpartum mood + hormone support
Multiple specific requests. Described as underdeveloped across the entire industry.
Affordable, clean products
Price + quality together. The perception that effective women's wellness is financially out of reach.
Perimenopause support
Completely underserved. No community, no guidance, no one talking about it honestly.
Simpler systems
Less products that do more. Clear desire for a curated starting point or personalized path.
At-home lab testing
Multiple requests for a way to know what they actually need before buying anything.
Community + real support
Several responses were explicit: what they need isn't a product. It's someone who understands them.
175 respondents. Many selected multiple stages, so percentages may exceed 100%. Open-ended responses are quoted or paraphrased as reported.