Contraception in immigrant women and the role of the nurse: a literature review

Abstract

Introduction: There were a total of 6,259,137 foreigners in Spain in 2013, 49% of which were women. This leads to the reproductive health of this collective supposing an important problem in the field of Public Health in Spain, since it is one of the most demanding groups in certain health services. Objective: To describe the current situation of contraceptive methods of immigrant women in Spain in recent years (2005 onwards). Methodology: A literature review was conducted in the first half of March 2014, it was limited to articles and literature reviews published since 2005 in English and Spanish. The databases used were PubMed, IME, SCOPUS, CINAHL, CUIDEN, WOS, Cochrane Library and TESEO databases. Results: The nurse plays a key role in the knowledge and use of new contraceptive methods by immigrant women, with the IUD being used by Maghrebi and Eastern European immigrants, the condom is the most used by the Latino immigrants, Asians know all the methods but prefer the traditional Chinese medicine, while the Sub-Saharan is the one who has the lowest rates of contraceptive use. Conclusions: The variability of contraceptive methods used by immigrant women in Spain depends on their religion and/or culture. The nursing professional must know these peculiarities, in order to provide a transcultural care to the patient and her partner in order to promote effective family planning.