Postpartum contraceptive acceptance in León, Mexico: a multivariate analysis

The aim of the present study was to identify the reasons for the acceptance or rejection of contraceptive methods among postpartum women at the Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology in León, Mexico.

A prospective cross-sectional study of 1025 postpartum women was undertaken. Reasons for acceptance or refusal of contraceptives were registered in a written survey. Twelve sociodemographic variables were included as predictors in a logistic regression analysis; the acceptance or refusal was the dependent variable, and statistical significance was set at 0.05.

There were 513 patients who accepted contraceptives (50.0%) and 512 (50.0%) who refused them. The main reasons for accepting contraceptives were definitive desire for no more children (17.0%) and satisfaction with previous contraceptive methods (21.5%). The main contraceptive methods chosen were intrauterine device (67.7%) and tubal sterilization (28.5%). Reasons for contraceptive refusal were husband's rejection (33.2%) and delaying contraceptive use until after finishing the postpartum period (31.8%). In the logistic regression model, the variables previous deliveries (p < 0.001), number of Cesarean sections (p < 0.001) and women's level of education (p < 0.02) were included as predictors of acceptance.

Previous deliveries, previous Cesarean sections and women's level of education were significant in contraception acceptance. The rejection of contraceptives was mainly attributed to husbands.