Likelihood of Emergency Contraception Use Among African-American Women at Risk of Adverse Birth Outcomes

Abstract

Nearly a half million infants in the United States are born preterm or with low birth weight each year. Providing women who have had a prior adverse birth outcome with access to family planning can help reduce the incidence of subsequent high-risk pregnancies and adverse outcomes. One effective option to prevent unintended pregnancy for women with a prior adverse birth outcome who either do not use contraception consistently or whose contraception fails is emergency contraception (EC). The purpose of our study was to understand willingness to use EC among African-American women who recently had an adverse birth outcome. The Healthy Births Healthy Communities (HBHC) Interconceptional Care Project (ICCP) targeted high-risk African-American women from two low-income Chicago neighborhoods who recently had an adverse birth outcome. The aim of HBHC ICCP was to improve participants' future birth outcomes by providing medical and social services and helping women to clarify their reproductive life goals. Information about participants' pregnancy intentions and willingness to use EC was measured in an interview shortly after enrollment into the study. Over 90% of the 131 women in our study either did not want to become pregnant or did not know if they wanted to become pregnant within the next 2 years. These women had 4.4 times higher odds of reporting willingness to use EC as compared to women who reported a desire to become pregnant within the next 2 years (75.6 vs. 50.0%, respectively; AOR: 4.4; 95% CI 1.1, 17.6). EC is an essential part of the reproductive toolkit for women at high risk of adverse birth outcomes who are not intending pregnancy, along with reproductive life planning and use of effective contraception.