Abortion advice by SMS beats going back to the clinic‚ say patients in Cape Town study

SMS advice‚ a checklist and a simple home urine test are all most women need after a medical abortion‚ a Cape Town study has found.

A team led by Deborah Constant‚ of the Women’s Health Research Unit at the University of Cape Town‚ tried the approach on 525 women who had free abortions at six public sector clinics. And 92% said they would be happy to repeat the regimen in future.

Writing in the journal PLOSone‚ Constant said the medical abortion drug cocktail introduced in 2010 worked so well that the proportion of women making follow-up visits to clinics fell.

The World Health Organisation had recommended that self-assessment of abortion outcomes should include a pregnancy test‚ she said‚ but the complexity of urine tests available in South Africa made them an impractical option.

Constant’s team used an imported urine test‚ done 14 days after the abortion‚ as well as giving patients a checklist and sending them 19 SMSes‚ including medication reminders‚ advice on pain management and how to respond to excessive bleeding.

“The inclusion of automated text reminders is well-liked by women and when combined with the low-sensitivity urine pregnancy test‚ is preferred to clinic follow-up post-abortion‚” said Constant.

“Women’s confidence in self-assessing their medical abortion may increase over time as this approach becomes better known.”

-TimesLIVE