Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Postpartum Females Regarding the Acceptance of Immediate Postpartum Contraception: A Cross-Sectional Study From North India

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 14; no. 10; p. e29824
• Main Authors: Pal, Reena, Maheshwari, Sonam, Kaka, Nirja, Patel, Neil, Sethi, Yashendra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Palo Alto Cureus Inc 02.10.2022
• Subjects: Age; Birth control; Births; Childbirth & labor; Counseling; Cross-sectional studies; Developing countries; Education; Family planning; Illiteracy; Intrauterine devices; IUD; LDCs; Maternal mortality; Methods; Postpartum period; Preeclampsia; Pregnancy; Pregnancy complications; Public health; Sample size; Statistical analysis; Vagina; Womens health; United States > US; India
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.29824

The immediate postpartum period is a great time to encourage the acceptance of contraceptive methods; the time is influenced by both emotional and physical factors. At this stage, the administration of intrauterine contraceptives is relatively easier with lesser complications due to the prior obstetric event. A single-center cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-constructed questionnaire-based interview on 331 women in their immediate postpartum period who had delivered a healthy live-born infant. The majority (59.8%) of study participants had unplanned pregnancies. We conducted behavior change communication sessions for postpartum family planning which resulted in 89% of participants accepting the methods with the prime reasons for acceptance being temporary child spacing (41%) and a definitive desire for no more children (34%). The odds were higher in women with more than five pregnancies [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.951, 95% CI = 1.389-2.925] and women whose last pregnancy was planned [AOR = 1.248, 95% CI = 1.002-3.215].The hindrance to adopt and adhere to postpartum contraception stems from a variety of socio-economic factors which are unique to low-income countries. Individually tailored behavior change communication/counseling approaches may help overcome misconceptions and meet the heterogeneous needs for family planning in the immediate postpartum phase.