Awareness of Emergency Contraception in Adolescent Mothers

• Main Authors: Sornruth Hengcharoen, Surasith Chaithongwongwatthana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 2009-09-01
• Series: Thai Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Subjects: emergency contraception; adolescent mother
• Online Access: https://tci-thaijo.org/index.php/tjog/article/download/1622/1339/
• ISSN: 0857-6084; 0857-6084

Objective: To assess the proportion of adolescent mothers who had awareness of emergency contraception. Study design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Materials and methods: Adolescent mothers aged 19 years or less, who visited at antenatal clinic or admitted to postpartum ward in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital from October 2007 to April 2008 were enrolled in the study. Standard self-administered questionnaires were completed by all participants. Data included demographic characteristics, obstetric and contraceptive history, knowledge and opinions on emergency contraception were collected and analyzed. Results: A total of 104 adolescent mothers were recruited. The mean age was 17.5 years and average age of their first sexual intercourse was 15.9 years. Oral contraceptive pills (58.7%) and condoms (35.6%) were the common used contraceptive methods. Most of them (84.6%) knew emergency contraception as a contraceptive method, but only 28.8% ever used emergency contraception in the past. Pharmacy (27.9%) and hospital or health office (19.2%) represented the common sources of information of contraceptive methods for these participants. Eighty two women (78.8%) thought that emergency contraception is an option to prevent unplanned pregnancy and they will use these contraceptive methods in the future. Conclusion: Most of the adolescent mothers had awareness of emergency contraception and willing to use them in the future. Health care providers seem to be the important sources of information for these groups.