Nurse practitioner Kim Hamm talked in soothing tones to her 14-year-old patient as she inserted a form of long-acting contraception beneath the skin of the girl's upper arm.
“This is the numbing medicine, so you're going to feel me touch you here,” she said, taking the teen's arm. “Little stick, one, two three, ouch. And then a little bit of burn.”
Hamm works at the Gaston County Teen Wellness Center, in Gastonia, N.C., which provides counseling, education and medical care. The teenager had already talked through her birth control options with another health care provider and chosen the implant — a flexible rod, about the size of a matchstick, that slowly releases low levels of hormones to prevent pregnancy.
“You're going to feel tons of pressure here,” Hamm says, using a small device to insert the implant. “That's it!”
And, in terms of preventing pregnancy, that will be it for the teen for the next several years.
