Creating a community-based protocol to prevent unintended pregnancy in homeless women in north central Appalachia

Homeless women are pregnant about twice the rate of other U.S. women of reproductive age. It is estimated that at the time of conception, approximately three out of four pregnancies among homeless women are unintended. In addition, children born into homelessness have about 12 times the chance of other children being placed into foster care. This rapid-cycle improvement project focused on developing a community-based protocol to address unintended pregnancy in homeless women in north central Appalachia. Phone interviews with four homeless women and a focus group of ten community stakeholders were used to develop the protocol. The protocol was positively evaluated by the stakeholders based on the acceptability of the development process and its usefulness in the community. This project also served as a pilot for a larger community-based participatory research study to address unintended pregnancy in homeless women using the developed protocol.