Patient-Centered Contraceptive Counseling
Unknown author
Abstract
Contraception can be a fundamental part of an individual's health and wellness. Therefore, contraceptive counseling is an important interaction between patients and obstetrician–gynecologists and other health care practitioners. Counseling is an opportunity to solicit an individual's values, preferences, and insight into what matters most to them as it relates to contraception. However, contraceptive counseling may be subject to undue influence, such as a counselor's personal biases (implicit or explicit), pressure or coercion from a counselor or partner, or even the ideology of the institution at which someone is seeking contraceptive access. Intentional application of a patient-centered reproductive justice framework and use of a shared decision making model is the recommended approach for providing supportive contraceptive counseling and care to help patients to achieve their reproductive goals.