IMPROVE –Promoting equitable reproductive health: IMplementing best practice postpartum contraceptive services through a quality imPROVEment initiative for and with immigrant women in Sweden

Immigrant women in Europe has reported lower use of effective contraception, higher risks of multiple births, and unintended pregnancies compared to native-born women.

There is little evidence about this, especially postpartum contraception, in the Swedish context.The purpose of this project is to promote equity in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Sweden by improving the quality of postpartum contraceptive counselling for and with immigrant women.

This four-year project will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers.The combination of methodological skills and experiences in implementation and experimental research within the team, makes the IMPROVE project achievable.The Swedish Pregnancy Registry (SPR) will be used to determine if there are any differences in birth spacing and associated complications when comparing immigrant and Swedish-born women(study 1).

Women and men from the largest immigrant groups will participate in focus group discussions to give their views on reproduction, birth-spacing, contraception, and how contraceptive services could be improved(study 2). Registration of contraceptive methods in the SPR will be introduced.

Furthermore, a Quality Improvement Collaborative aiming to enhance quality of contraceptive services will be evaluated, using a cluster randomized trial with process-evaluation(study 3).

The IMPROVE project will increase the understanding of challenges to contraceptive services postpartum, and how to overcome these.