Aims. This study evaluated the contraceptive effectiveness of a theory-based Interactive Postpartum Sexual Health Education Programme (IPSHEP) to enhance postpartum women's contraceptive self-efficacy, effective contraceptive behavior, and the learning stage.

Background. Although postpartum sexual education (or family planning) used to be one of the postpartum routine teachings, the routine teaching is inadequate to satisfy women's informational needs related to contraceptive health. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate effective postpartum sexual health programmes.

Methods. For this 2 group, randomised controlled trial, 166 participants were recruited at a medical center in northern Taiwan. The experiment group received the intervention of IPSHEP included 10-15 minutes of interactive individual health education and an interactive printed pamphlet. The control group received routine postpartum sexual teaching. Participants in the experimental group were separated according to their learning preparedness, as determined by the Transtheoretical Model. Their level of preparedness (learning stage) was then matched to different contraceptive health education strategies used in the intervention. Data were collected at baseline and at 3 days and 8 weeks and following the intervention.

Results. Significant positive changes were found for measures of the effective contraceptive behavior and learning stage. However, contraceptive self-efficacy was not significantly different in the two groups.

Conclusion. These results support the effectiveness of our theory-based Interactive Postpartum Sexual Health Education Programme for enhancing postpartum women's effective contraceptive behavior and learning stage. The longer-term effectiveness of our programme relative to standard postpartum teaching suggests that intervention efficacy is enhanced by matching teaching strategies to participants' stage of learning preparedness.