Maternal healthcare use and postpartum contraception in Nigeria

Family planning is generally acknowledged as an important component of the reproductive health agenda and a necessity in all programs and policies geared towards the realization of safe motherhood. Several studies have established that most maternal deaths occur in the postpartum period. This paper therefore aims to contribute to existing knowledge on the factors affecting the adoption of PPFP, with special emphasis on examining how influential the women’s contact with maternal health services (antenatal care, delivery in a health facility and postnatal care) had been on adoption of contraception in the postpartum period. The analysis was based on the data from the Women’s Questionnaire and the calendar data from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). The use of maternal health services (ANC visits and timing of postnatal check-up) is significantly associated with the use of a modern method of contraception during the postpartum period. Other significant predictors of the use of a modern method in the postpartum period include region, education, the household wealth index, and exposure to family planning messages. The findings suggest that contraceptive use among postpartum women will increase substantially if more women use maternal health care services, especially for antenatal care and postnatal care.