Accelerating contraceptive uptake through post-pregnancy care models
Background
Abortion self-care—an abortion with pills obtained without a prescription—is becoming more common globally. But little is known about access to postabortion contraception for women who access medical abortion this way.
Objective
Development of scalable, evidence-based interventions to increase uptake and continuation rates of contraception after self-use of medical abortion among women and adolescent girls. This is a three-and-a-half-year project being conducted in Pakistan, Kenya and India, and will be overseen by technical advisory groups (TAGs), which will include pharmacy associations, and advisors with expertise in launching new products in the marketplace.
Phase one
Formative research and intervention design will take place during Phase 1. The formative research will use qualitative research methods, including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observations. The focus will be on understanding fertility preference and management, contraceptive experiences, needs and preferences of women and adolescent girls who have self-used medical abortion, as well as perspectives from pharmacists/medicine sellers and other informal providers who sell medical abortion drugs. User-center design approaches will be used to identify and develop multiple prototypes to overcome barriers and facilitate access to contraceptive uptake and continuation.
Phase two
Implementation and evaluation of selected interventions will take place during Phase 2. Interventions are currently envisioned for end-users (women and adolescent girls), as well as for pharmacists/medicine sellers and other community intermediaries. Ipas will work with the Population Council to evaluate the project intervention . Results will be used to develop a strategy for sustainable scale-up of interventions.
For information on Kenya and Pakistan, email Kristen Shellenberg: [email protected]
For information on India, contact Sushanta Kumar Banerjee: [email protected]