Involving Men in Maternity Care in Burkina Faso

This was defined as whether women had attended at least two outpatient postnatal care consultations/check-ups in the first six weeks after birth.

This was defined according to the WHO criteria for exclusive breastfeeding: "the infant has received only breastmilk from his/her mother or a wet nurse, or expressed breastmilk, and no other liquids or solids with the exception of drops or syrups consisting of vitamins, mineral supplements or medicines". Although the WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months postpartum, 3 months was chosen as the reference period because by that point only 20% of infants are still exclusively breastfed.

Effective modern methods were defined as those having a rate of unintended pregnancy per 100 women of 10% or less per year, as commonly used. Based on local availability, these methods were: implants, IUDs, injectables, oral contraceptives, and permanent methods. Each woman was considered a "user" or "non-user" for each method.

This was defined as the number of women using IUDs, implants, female sterilization or male sterilization at 8 months postpartum.

This was defined as the use of all contraceptive methods, according to self-report at 8 months postpartum. The aim of this measure was to quantify the use of "natural" methods, such as withdrawal, which, based on the literature, may be higher than reported in DHS surveys.

Whether or not users of modern contraception at 8 months postpartum had initiated their method in a timely fashion was assessed. This was a binary outcome with users of effective methods as the denominator. Users were considered to have initiated contraception either in a timely fashion, or not in a timely fashion. Timeliness in this context refers to whether women had been exposed to a significant risk of becoming pregnant prior to initiating their contraceptive method.

Specifically, whether or not women using contraception had initiated it in a timely fashion ("timeliness") was defined based on the interaction between four criteria: when they initiated the method (either in the first 6 months postpartum or later); whether they had reported to be exclusively breastfeeding at 3 months postpartum (yes or no); whether at that point in time they had resumed intercourse (yes or no); and whether at that point their menses had returned (yes or no).

Unmet need for contraception is a concept used to describe the situation in which women are at risk of conceiving, yet do not wish to become pregnant. Several definitions of unmet need for contraception have been proposed. The Revised definition of unmet need published by the DHS Program in 2012 was chosen. This definition classifies women as either having an unmet need, or not, based on the interaction of several criteria: whether or not they wanted the index pregnancy; whether or not their periods have returned after giving birth; whether or not they want to become pregnant again, and if so how soon.

Relationship adjustment, as defined in this study, was a score calculated based on questions related to: woman's self-reported satisfaction with the relationship; her level of communication and agreement with her male partner on issues related to reproductive health; and who in the household made decisions related to reproductive health and any relevant expenditures. The questions used were derived from similar survey measures (Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (LWMAT)). The median score was chosen as a cut-off point, above which women were considered to have high relationship adjustment, and below which they were considered to have low relationship adjustment.

A tailored satisfaction score was developed to assess participant's satisfaction with routine maternity care received. Questions were adapted from the K4 Health's Respectful Maternity Care toolkit, and from the UK's Care Quality Commission (CQC)'s 2013 Maternity Services Survey. If participants reported having experienced the maximum score for each dimension of satisfaction, they were classed as having complete satisfaction with care.

High adherence to the intervention was defined as attendance (by the couple or the partner) at at least two out of three intervention components.