A smaller number of patients attend after a termination of pregnancy. Some of these have already discussed contraception or indeed have started taking the Pill immediately after their termination. Others have delayed thinking about their needs for a variable length of time. Among these, as also among young mothers, there may be many problems, expressed overtly or covertly. A common finding is that during their recovery, from either a termination or childbirth, they have felt themselves unable or powerless to choose.
An 16-year-old girl, Miss R., with a six-week-old baby came asking for the injection. She looked dull and resigned. The doctor felt hopeless and wondered why this method had been chosen. As the girl talked, the doctor sensed that she had been thought to be irresponsible by those who had looked after her during and after the pregnancy, and therefore only the injectable contraceptive, medroxyprogesterone, had been discussed postnatally. Given time, she chose the COC and left, looking quite bright, and saying ‘nobody explained it properly before’.
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