background: Postpartum women are at risk of unintended pregnancy; however, non-attendance at the postpartum visit ranges from 11%-40% while the Well-Baby Visit (WBV) is highly utilized. This study obtained women’s input about their care preferences and assessed support for a two-generation approach.

methods: Qualitative interviews with immediate postpartum women were conducted to understand women’s views regarding postpartum care. An additional 100 interviews with women immediate and 2-4 months postpartum were conducted to clarify issues raised in the initial interviews. Qualitative interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Dedoose. Quantitative interviews were analyzed in SAS using multivariable analysis.

results: Postpartum women face a dilemma: they express a desire to return to their provider but also a strong desire for convenience of care. One woman stated how she would prefer going to the same clinic as her infant, “it’ll make it better and it’ll make it less – not waste my time because I could just for ease go with her doctor and then go with my doctor.” In fact, 90% of women prefer a doctor who can care for both mothers and infants and 94% are interested in care at the same clinic and time.

conclusions: Given what we know about low-income women’s use of postpartum care, barriers and challenges related to convenience may explain why women do not carry through on their intentions to obtain postpartum care. The data suggest that providing women’s care at the WBV might be a reasonable approach.