Use of a Reproductive Life Planning Tool at the Pediatric Well-Baby Visit With Postpartum Women

Improved access to timely health care and contraception in the postpartum (PP) period is needed to reduce unintended pregnancies and help women achieve desired birth spacing. While the routine 6-week visit has historically been considered the place for women to discuss and receive contraception, many women, particularly low-income women, do not attend the postpartum visit. A novel approach to increasing receipt of PP care and contraception is the adoption of a reproductive life planning tool. Explorations of the use of a self-administered Reproductive Life Plan Tool (RLPT) by pediatricians in the context of the Well-Baby Visit (WBV) with postpartum mothers, holds great promise. The objective of this study is to determine whether use of a simple self-administered Reproductive Life Plan Tool at the 2-month WBV increases the proportion of postpartum women receiving woman\'s health care and contraception at 6-months PP, compared to women not exposed to such an intervention. The two specific aims of the project are: 1) To determine if introducing a self-administered Reproductive Life Planning Tool (RLPT) with postpartum mothers during the 2-month WBV will increase the proportion of women receiving a well-woman primary care health visit by 6 months postpartum; and if introducing a self-administered Reproductive Life Planning Tool (RLPT) will increase utilization rates of contraception by 6 months postpartum. 2) To assess patient-, provider-, and systems-level barriers and facilitators to integrating a self-administered Reproductive Life Planning Tool (RLPT) designed to facilitate referral of postpartum women for primary well-woman care in the context of a pediatric clinic. The investigators hypothesize that exposure to a self-administered RLPT combined with a conversation with a pediatrician during a 2-month WBV will increase use of well-woman primary health care during the postpartum period as well as receipt of contraception, by 6-months postpartum. If successful, the results of this study have great potential to inform clinical and public health practice to increase women\'s use of health care and contraception in the postpartum period.