Addressing family planning resources in Jamaica

Jamaica has a high rate of unintended pregnancy, were three out of four women, ages 15-24 years old, have had an unintended pregnancy. Comparative to WHO, there are an estimated 200 million pregnancies each year worldwide, and a third of these are unintended. In our analysis, 16 peer-reviewed articles were reviewed to determine existing resources for family planning and unintended pregnancy prevention. Studies included in this analysis contained barrier and supportive factors in at least three published manuscripts. Nine articles met the inclusion criteria. Barriers to accessing family planning services included: long waiting times at clinics, age limits, lack of information about contraceptive technology, negative side effect experiences from previously used contraception, and limited contraceptive options. However, several supportive factors were also identified including: employment, completion of secondary education, partner support, frequent religious attendance, social networking and lack of side effects. These supportive factors contributed to Jamaica women seeking and continuing their chosen contraceptive method. Given these barriers and supportive factors, we propose an evidence-based roadmap of a pilot project to improve contraceptive utilization. It is our goal, to replicate the (MoTeCH) Mobile Technology for Community Health project used in Ghana, Africa tailored towards contraceptive education on a comparative platform.