The role of maternal health care services as predictors of time to modern contraceptive use after childbirth in Northwest Ethiopia: Application of the shared frailty survival analysis

INTRODUCTION: The first year after birth is an ideal time to offer contraception services, as many women have many opportunities to be in contact with the health care system. Nevertheless, a large number of postpartum women in developing countries do not use the service owing to the interplay of factors operating at various stages. Therefore, this study aimed to assess predictors of modern contraceptive use in the extended postpartum period. METHODS: A community based retrospective cross-sectional study was done among 1281 women who gave birth within 12 months preceding the survey. Kaplan-Meier plots and log rank tests were used to explore the rate of modern contraceptive use. The Weibull regression survival model with multivariate frailty was employed to identify the predictors of time to contraception. RESULTS: Of the respondents, 59.1% (95% CI: 56.8%–62.2%) had started using modern contraceptive methods within 12 months after birth. By the second month after birth, only 11.1 percent of the women surveyed started to use a contraceptive method, which increased steadily to 25.9%, 37.7%, and 59.5% at 6, 9, and 12 months, respectively. The most preferred contraceptive method was injectable (71.5%), followed by implants (21.5%). Women’s education (aHR = 1.29; 95%CI: 1.02, 1.66), four or more antenatal care (aHR = 1.59; 95% CI: 1.22, 2.06), early initiation of antenatal care (aHR = 2.03; 95% CI: 1.28, 3.21), and early postnatal checkup (aHR = 1.39; 95% CI: 1.12, 1.73) were statistically significant predictors of earlier initiation of modern contraceptive methods. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of women did not use modern contraceptive methods in the first year after birth. Maternal services were found to be the sole predictors in postpartum contraceptive use. Findings suggest the importance of linking postpartum family planning along the continuum of care. The observed heterogeneity at cluster level also urges the need of disaggregating data for decision-making.