"Well, maybe I'll try the pill for just a few months...": Brief motivational and narrative-based interventions to encourage contraceptive use among adolescents at high risk for early childbearing

This prospective study identified 40 young, female adolescents seeking reproductive health services who were considered at high risk for early childbearing because of their desire for pregnancy or their ambivalence about contracepting. Adolescents received counseling interventions that incorporated practices from Motivational Interviewing and Narrative Therapy, with the goal of encouraging them to consider a brief trial of contraception to postpone pregnancy. Over time, more than one-third of the adolescents initiated a hormonal method of contraception, citing concerns about their current partner, a desire to become better prepared for motherhood, a willingness to first seek treatment for newly identified reproductive health problems, or as the result of a recent conversation with an important adult in their life. It may be fruitful to continue to research these alternative approaches and to more systematically evaluate their efficacy in brief, office-based interventions to encourage contraceptive use among young adolescents at high risk for early childbearing.