%0 Journal Article
%T Post abortion family planning counseling as a tool to increase contraception use
%A Ali Ceylan
%A Meliksah Ertem
%A Gunay Saka
%A Nurten Akdeniz
%J BMC Public Health
%D 2009
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2458-9-20
%X The Diyarbakir Office of Turkish Family Planning Association (DTFPA) is a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization which runs a family planning clinic to serve the lower socio-economic populations, in Diyarbakir-Turkey. Post abortion counseling is introduced by using proper communication skills and with using appropriate methods to women. In this study we introduced contraceptive usage of women who had induced abortion one year ago and followed by DTFPA's clinic.55.3% of our clients were not using contraceptive methods before abortion. At the end of the one year, 75.9% of our followed-up clients revealed that they were using one of the modern contraceptive methods. There was no woman with IUD before induced abortion. At the end of one year 124 (52.3%) women had IUD. "A modern method was introduced immediately after abortion" was the most important factor increasing modern method usage.Our results advocate that post-abortion counseling may be an effective tool to increase the usage of contraceptives. Improved and more qualified post-abortion family planning counseling should be an integral part of abortion services.The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, worldwide, almost 20 million unsafe abortions take place each year, with 95% of these performed in developing countries. About 80,000 maternal deaths per year are thought to be due to abortion complications, accounting for about 13% of all maternal deaths in the world, one in eight pregnancy-related deaths [1]. An estimated 123 million couples, mainly in developing countries, do not use contraceptives, despite wanting to space or limit their childbearing [2]. Post-abortion counseling incorporated into post abortion care has been regarded as an appropriate venue or vehicle to decrease unwanted pregnancies and induced abortions [3].Abortion services have been readily available in Turkey since 1983, when it was first legalized. According to the family planning law (1983), induced abortions can be performed
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/20