The impact of depression at preconception on pregnancy planning and unmet need for contraception in the first postpartum year: a cohort study from rural Malawi.

Depression in the year before pregnancy impacts on women's use of contraception at conception and in the early postpartum period. This places these women at risk of unplanned pregnancies in this high fertility, high unmet need for contraception cohort of women in rural Malawi. Our results call for higher integration of mental health care into family planning services and for a focus on early postnatal contraception.