Contraceptive miscues tied to pregnancy. (Poor Patient-Provider Communication).

DENVER -- A health care provider's failure to convey important information or provide effective contraception options was linked to unintended pregnancies in 51 of 355 women who sought first-trimester abortions at a private medical practice.

Moreover, more than half of the pregnancies being terminated could have been avoided if women had been informed of and had access to emergency contraception, Dr. Mitchell Creinin reporter at the annual meeting of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals.

"The real question we were asking is, Do we as health care providers need to accept some of the responsibility that our society tends to place on women as being the people who are 'bad' because an unplanned pregnancy occurs?" asked Dr. Creinin of the department of ob.gyn. at the University of Pittsburgh.

Research by Dr. Creinin and Dr. Jennifer Isaacs, a former medical student at the university, showed that miscommunication indeed plays a substantial role in why contraceptive efforts fail. Their study results were presented at the meeting.

No attempt was made to record conversations between physicians and patients. Rather, the researchers asked women to describe what happened in contraception-related medical visits leading up to their unplanned pregnancies.

The bottom line, he said, is not whether the patient was a good listener or whether the physician was a good communicator; but essentially, "When she walked out of her health care provider's office, what did she understand?"

Women were also asked what types of contraceptive devices they had used in the past and at the time of the unplanned pregnancy, as well as what type of contraception they intended to use in the future. They were also queried about their knowledge and use of emergency contraceptives.