Use of Postpartum Family Planning in Urban Senegal: The Role of Integrated Services

Although the majority of postpartum women indicate a desire to use contraceptives, family planning methods are often not offered to, or taken up by, women after delivery or in the first year postpartum. This study examines exposure to family planning services at the time of delivery and at an immunization appointment to determine if these points of integration are associated with greater use of postpartum family planning. A representative sample of women ages 15-49 was surveyed from six cities in Senegal in 2011. This study focuses on the women who were within two years postpartum (weighted n=1879). We show that women who received family planning information at the time of delivery are more likely to be using modern family planning postpartum than their counterparts who also delivered in a facility but did not receive such information. Exposure to family planning at an immunization visit was not significantly related to postpartum family planning use. Another key finding is that women with greater self-efficacy are more likely to use modern family planning. Programmatic recommendations are made for improving integration of family planning into maternal and child health services with the goal of increasing postpartum women’s use of family planning in urban Senegal.