Contraceptive decision making among Medicaid-eligible women

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of sociodemographic factors, attitudes, knowledge, and experiences regarding the use of various contraceptive methods, future plans prenatally, and actual use postpartum among a population of low income pregnant women. Women were interviewed prenatally and during the postpartum period in a large, urban academic health center serving primarily an indigent population. The primary analytic method employed was logistic regression. The key finding in this study is that women are not consistently using the method of contraception postpartum that they planned during the prenatal period. Only 54.7% of the women planning to use oral contraceptive pills were using them postpartum, and only 31.3% of the women planning to use condoms were actually using them postpartum. Expanding contraceptive education and counseling throughout the perinatal period may assist women's decision making.