Awareness of Emergency Contraception in Adolescent Mothers

Abstract

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.