Nearly half of the 6 million pregnancies in the United States each year are unplanned. Upstream USA works to expand opportunity by reducing unplanned pregnancy across the U.S. We work in partnership with health centers to strengthen reproductive care and autonomy by increasing equitable access to the full range of contraceptive options. Upstream is on track to achieve nationwide impact at scale.
Working with an organization called Upstream, Delaware has rolled out the program to nearly every medical provider in the state over the past three years. It’s having big effects on the number of women requesting and receiving contraception in a state that recently had the nation’s highest rate of unplanned pregnancies.”
In Upstream, Blue Meridian found an organization and leaders who had vision, who could take ownership of their destiny by building a plan, and who were prepared to hold themselves accountable to performance.”
To make sure that more women were educated about the full range of birth control choices, they instituted a “pregnancy intention” question, so that every time a woman in Delaware sees a health-care professional—even for a wellness checkup or a case of the flu—she’s asked, “Do you intend to become pregnant in the next year?”
When a patient can access long term supplies of birth control, they’re much more likely to continue using that method without interruption, and that reduces the likelihood of unintended pregnancies.
To expand equitable access to birth control, Upstream provides CME/CEU-eligible training and technical assistance to health centers across an entire state at once. We meet each health center where they and their patients are, monitoring our interventions as we go.
After the first three years of Upstream’s partnership with the state of Delaware, there was a simulated 24 percent decrease in unplanned pregnancies among Title X patients aged 20-39.
FamilyScape simulations using state-level Title X data from Delaware and from the U.S.
Title X data, 2014-2017. Study limited to women at risk of unintended pregnancy (sexually active and not pregnant or seeking pregnancy).
All patients should have access to the full range of contraceptive methods—so that they can become pregnant only if and when they want to.
Birth control is not just a contraceptive, it’s your future. It is your choice. It is something that you are in control of. It’s deciding for yourself what you would like for your life and what you want it to be.”
Catiee patient
of Delaware patients made their own choices about birth control.
