Prevention of repeated pregnancy in teenagers: A successful experience

Abstract

Introduction: adolescent pregnancy has consequences for the mother and her child. In addition to the risk of the index pregnancy, being a mother at this stage of life predicts the occurrence of other pregnancies before the age of 20, which further increases the vulnerability of the entire family group. Current evidence suggests that immediate postpartum initiation of long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) is the most effective intervention to prevent repeat pregnancy in adolescents. Objectives: to evaluate the strategy of starting an immediate postpartum LARC in a public hospital in the metropolitan region of our country. Methods: at the Hospital El Carmen Dr. Luis Valentín Ferrada de Maipú, contraception counseling is given to all adolescent mothers and they are offered the start of a contraceptive implant before discharge. During 2015, 53.4% of adolescent puerperal women decided to start an implant (Implanon ®) immediately. In 2017, 92 patients from this group were contacted: 90.3% continued using the same method. Of the adolescents who had withdrawn it, all reported use of some other contraceptive method. In the intervened group there were no new pregnancies, in the control group (without postpartum contraception) 7% of repeated pregnancies were observed during the evaluated period. Conclusions: the initiation of a LARC method in the immediate postpartum seems to be a successful tool to reduce the rate of repeat pregnancy in adolescence.