Women's satisfaction with early home medical abortion with telephone follow-up: A questionnaire-based study in the UK

Abstract

A questionnaire-based study was undertaken to assess women's satisfaction with the home medical abortion service. Over a 15-month period, questionnaires were conducted at 24 h and 2 weeks following the procedure. A total of 127 women took part in the study and filled in a questionnaire at 24 h, with 77 completing the questionnaire at 2 weeks. At 24 h, over 95% of women who responded, agreed or strongly agreed that they felt prepared for the pain and bleeding that they experienced at home. At 2 weeks, 97.3% of respondents felt that they had had enough information and knew what to expect, and were therefore satisfied with the procedure. Only 15% of women were lost to clinical follow-up at 2 weeks. The majority of women are satisfied with the home medical abortion service. These high satisfaction rates are maintained at 2 weeks. Telephone follow-up 2 weeks after the abortion was safe and effective.

Keywords::

• Abortion
• service delivery
• survey

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Mr A Prentice, Dr L Gilbert, Dr S Goldbeck-Wood, Dr T Everett and Professor J Trussell for advice on the writing of this article. We would also like to thank the nurses of the Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit in Peterborough City Hospital for filling in the questionnaires with the patients.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.