Family Planning Advice and Postpartum Contraceptive Use Among Low-Income Women in Mexico

CONTEXT: In Mexico, family planning advice has been incorporated into the clinical guidelines for prenatal care. However, the relationship between women's receipt of family planning advice during prenatal care and subsequent contraceptive use has not been evaluated. METHODS: Data were collected in 2003 and 2004 in 17 Mexican states from 2,238 urban low-income women postpartum. Participating women reported on prenatal services received and contraceptive use. Logistic and multinomial logistic regression models evaluated whether receiving family planning advice during prenatal care predicted current contraceptive use, after quality of care in the community, service utilization, delivery characteristics, household socioeconomic characteristics, and maternal and infant characteristics were controlled for. RESULTS: Overall, 47% of women used a modern contraceptive method. Women who received family planning advice during prenatal care were more likely to use a contraceptive than were those who did not receive such advice (odds ratio, 2.2). Women who received family planning advice had a higher probability of using condoms (relative risk ratio, 2.3) and IUDs (5.2), and of undergoing sterilization (1.4), than of using no method. CONCLUSIONS: Integrating family planning advice into prenatal care may be an important strategy for reaching women when their demand for contraception is high.