Birth Control: Education About Contraceptives Is The Best Prevention Of Unplanned Pregnancies

Educating women about birth control reduces pregnancy rates by nearly half, according to recent findings published in The Lancet.

Researchers at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco, randomly assigned 40 Planned Parenthood reproductive health health clinics to receive either training or continue normal care without added training from 2011 to 2013, according to Reuters. More than 1,500 women ages 18 to 25 who visited the clinics and who didn't want to get pregnant in the next year were enrolled in the study. 

Half of the participants received evidence-based training on counseling and the insertion of intrauterine devices (IUDs) or progestin implants--also known as long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs).

A year later, researchers found that women who had received LARC training were more likely to report chose an IUD or implant and less likely to get pregnant during the study period than those in the control group; this was about 28 percent of the sample.

"It's important that women also learn about methods that give a higher level of protection against pregnancy when they seek contraceptive care," Dr. Cynthia Harper, a professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, said in a news release. "Women consider healthcare providers a highly-trusted source of information on birth control, so it's especially important that providers tell women about all of the methods they can use."

Related Articles

Maternal Obesity Increase Risk Of Complications During Pregnancy

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).