Background

In India, a large proportion of women with an unmet need for contraception are within their first year after childbirth. Therefore, concentrating efforts to educate postpartum women on the importance of attending contraceptive clinics could have a proportionally bigger impact on increasing postpartum contraception usage.

Methods

Hundred and seventy-eight (178) women were followed up to determine the proportion of postpartum women who attended the family planning clinics for contraceptive counseling. The reason for non-attendance, choice and effectiveness of contraceptive method selected was determined.

Results

Out of 178 postpartum women who were followed up, only 12 (6.8 %) attended the contraceptive clinic. IUD, POPs and Inj-DMPA are the preferred contraceptive methods selected by postpartum women. Hundred percent of the postpartum women who attended contraceptive selected a contraceptive method as compared to only 44 % of the postpartum women who did not attend a contraceptive clinic. Only 29.2 % of these postpartum women selected highly effective contraceptive methods as compared to 83.3 % by the postpartum women who attended family planning clinics. The common reasons cited for not attending contraceptive clinic was found to be time constraint (43.9 %) followed by ‘stay far away’ (39 %), followed by ‘already have information’ (9.7 %).

Conclusions

Family planning service that is scheduled to be delivered at the 6-week postpartum is rarely attended. The common reason cited by postpartum women for poor attendance in these family planning clinics was time constraint.