Counseling and in-advance provision of levonorgestrel emergency contraceptive pills decrease the rate of unplanned pregnancy during breastfeeding: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of counseling and in-advance provision of levonorgestrel emergency contraceptive pills (LNG-ECPs) during postpartum counseling on the incidence of occurrence of unplanned pregnancy during breastfeeding.

Materials and methods: The current study is an open-label, parallel, randomized controlled trial carried out in a university hospital in Egypt. All women who delivered and planning to birth-space and breastfeed for at least 1 year were approached for participation during a postpartum hospital stay. Eligible participants were randomly allocated to receive adequate lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) counseling Group 1 (LAM-only) or the above LAM counseling in addition to counseling and in advance provision of one packet of 0.75-mg LNG-ECPs Group 2 (LAM + EC). The two study groups were followed 6 months and the primary outcome was the unplanned pregnancy rate.

Results: The study included 2708 women randomized into two groups; LAM-only and LAM + EC groups. Demographic characteristics were homogenous between the groups at the time of recruitment. Unplanned pregnancy was significantly higher in LAM-only group 70 (5.3%) as compared with 5 (0.4%) in LAM-EC group (p = .0001). Also, 619 women (46.6%) used LNG-ECPs with minor side effects like nausea in 175 (28.3%) women, headache in 94 (15.2%) women, vomiting in 24 (3.9%) women.

Conclusion: In-advance counseling and provision of LNG-ECPs for those opt to use LAM during postpartum family planning counseling can decrease the rate of unplanned pregnancy during breastfeeding and increase the initiation of long-term use of contraception.

Keywords:

• Emergency contraception
• unplanned pregnancy
• breastfeeding
• postpartum contraception
• lactational amenorrhea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.