Comorbidities and Contraceptive Counseling Should Go Hand in Hand

Because maternal medical comorbidities portend pregnancy-associated complications, providing contraceptive counseling to women in suboptimal health is especially important. To evaluate how medical comorbidities affect recommendations about contraceptive counseling before, during, and after pregnancy, investigators analyzed data from the Maryland Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey administered to new mothers.

Overall, 77% of mothers reported having received antenatal contraceptive counseling. Women with chronic hypertension were more likely than unaffected women to report a recent undesired pregnancy, and were not more likely to report receiving contraceptive counseli…