Women's experiences of having an early medical abortion at home

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess women's experiences of having an early medical abortion at home and to investigate their perceptions of the information provided before the abortion. The study also aimed to investigate possible differences between groups of women.

Study design: The study is cross-sectional with a descriptive and comparative design. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 119 women who had undergone a medical abortion at home.

Results: Almost half of the women (43%, n = 51) experienced the bleeding as more than expected and one-fourth (26%, n = 31) bled for more than four weeks. One-third (34%, n = 41) stated a lack of information, especially about the bleeding and pain. The experience of pain differed between groups. Women who had undergone an earlier abortion and women who had previously given birth experienced the abortion as being less painful than that experienced by first-time gravidae (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The finding that women experience information about the pain and bleeding to be insufficient suggests that information in those areas can be improved. The result that women without previous experience of abortion or childbirth stated the pain as being worse than other groups investigated suggests that special attention should be paid to those women.

Keywords: Bleeding; Home abortion; Information; Medical abortion; Pain; Women's experiences.