The effectiveness of preabortion contraception counseling

Objective: To demonstrate the impact of preabortion counseling followed by immediate postabortal. provision of the chosen method on postabortion. cont raceptive use. Methods: Three hundred and forty-two women undergoing volunt ary termination of pregnancy at less than 10 weeks gestation were enrolled at the Woman and Child Health Training and Research Clinic, Medical School of Istanbul. Clinic visits and telephone surveys were performed to measure contraceptive use at 6 months following abortion. Result: Two hundred and t hirty-six women either visited the. clinic or responded to the telephone su rvey. Eighty percent of the respondents reported use of a modem contracepti ve as compared to less than 40% prevalence found in the national survey. Co nclusion: Preabortion counseling combined with immediate postabortal provis ion of contraceptives may significantly increase contraceptive use at 6 mon ths postprocedure. (C) 2001 International Federation of Gynecology and Obst etrics. All rights reserved.