Improving the Medical Care and Counseling of Postabortion Patients in Egypt

Abstract

This report analyzes the results of an operations research project carried out at two sites in Egypt to improve the medical care and counseling of postabortion patients. Preintervention and postintervention surveys and observations were conducted. After the introduction of vacuum aspiration under local anesthesia, the number of cases treated with dilatation and curettage under general anesthesia dropped from an average of 169 per month to 16. The majority of the remaining cases (an average of 119 per month) were treated with vacuum aspiration. Both providers' and women's knowledge about postabortion complications improved. Family planning information provided to postabortion patients increased as a result of the project's training program. The proportion of patients intending to use a contraceptive method increased by 30 percentage points due to the improved counseling. Future programs linking family planning and postabortion medical services should be prepared to improve the medical care of existing emergency health services and to add counseling services.

Making abortion law reform work: Steps and slips in Guyana

“…No such data exist. However, a study in 1996 of the contraceptive knowledge of women seeking terminations from the leading providers, ten medical practitioners and three private hospitals, found that 316 abortions were reported in one week.21 On this basis alone, the number of abortions in one year would be over 16,090. The number of women of reproductive age is over 200,000.…”

Sustainability of postabortion care in Peru

“…Rather most interventions have focused on a single component of PAC such as changes in clinical practice or linkages to family planning. For example, improvements in clinical care were documented in Egypt, including a switch from SC to MVA, for treatment of incomplete abortion (Huntington, et al, 1995). Still other studies concentrated on the addition of family planning to abortion treatment services, resulting in increased provision of contraceptive information, higher rates of contraceptive method acceptance and/or greater staff satisfaction (Solo et al, 1999;Díaz et al, 1999;Farfán et al, 1997;Távara Orozco and Ramírez Jiménez, 1996).…”

The role of male partner in utilization of maternal health care services in Ethiopia: a community-based couple study

“…Several studies have reported the positive impact of male partner’s involvement on maternal health care services [11–31]. Male partner’s involvement in maternal and child health care service is reported to be associated with increased uptake of maternal health care such as antenatal care (ANC), the probability of having facility-based delivery, contraception use, decreased mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT), and decreased post-abortion recovery time [11, 32, 33]. Some studies also showed that when couples receive counseling together, there is a better use of infant feeding methods [34, 35], have a higher acceptance of HIV testing [36] and they are more likely to adhere to Antiretroviral therapy (ART) [34, 35].…”