Pediatric Clinic Survey of Maternal Preterm Birth Risk and Family Planning Needs and Preferences

Summary: 
Improving access to birth control is an opportunity to meet women’s needs and improve the health of women and children, for example preventing preterm birth. Pediatric appointments are potential opportunities to identify and address the family planning needs of postpartum women.

Principal Investigators:
Jayme Congdon, MD, MS | Pediacrtics | UCSF School of Medicine

Background

Improving access to birth control is an opportunity to meet women’s needs and improve the health of women and children, for example preventing preterm birth. Pediatric appointments are potential opportunities to identify and address the family planning needs of postpartum women. Women’s perspectives on this topic are essential for the development of patient-centered interventions.

Objective

Improving access to birth control is an opportunity to meet women’s needs and improve the health of women and children.

Method

We surveyed 263 English or Spanish speaking women who were attending a 2-6-month check-up at one of three Bay Area pediatric clinics. The survey asked about desire to use birth control, current birth control use, and satisfaction with current birth control method. We also asked how women felt about discussing, receiving information about, or getting birth control during a pediatric visit.

Results

We learned that a quarter of the survey participants wished to be using birth control but did not have any birth control method. We identified a few factors that were related to not getting birth control needs met, including postpartum depression symptoms, experiencing barriers to getting birth control postpartum, and delivering more recently. Most women felt that it would be acceptable to discuss or get birth control during a pediatric visit, especially the women who desired birth control but did not currently have a birth control method. Overall, this study showed that many women are not getting their postpartum birth control needs met, and that pediatricians could have a role in making it easier for postpartum women to access birth control. These perspectives from postpartum women will aid future efforts by researchers, clinicians, and community stakeholders to develop interventions to improve access to postpartum family planning services.