Delivery at Catholic hospitals and postpartum contraception use, five US states, 2015-2018

To evaluate whether the prevalence of postpartum contraceptive use was lower among people who delivered at a Catholic hospital compared to a non-Catholic hospital.

We linked 2015-2018 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) survey data from five states to hospital information from the corresponding birth certificate file. People with a live birth self-reported their use of contraception methods on the PRAMS survey at 2-6 months postpartum, which we coded into two dichotomous (yes vs. no) outcomes for use of female sterilization and highly-effective contraception (female/male sterilization, intrauterine device, implant, injectable, oral contraception, patch, or ring). We conducted multilevel log-binomial regression to examine the relationship between birth hospital type and postpartum contraception use adjusting for confounders.

Prevalence of female sterilization for people who delivered at a Catholic hospital was 51% lower than that of their counterparts delivering at a non-Catholic hospital (adjusted prevalence ratio: 0.49; 95% confidence interval: 0.37-0.65).

We found lower use of postpartum female sterilization, but no difference in highly effective contraception overall, for people who delivered at a Catholic hospital compared to a non-Catholic hospital.