Unintended Pregnancy and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Bako Tibe District Public Health Facility, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background. A pregnancy is described unintended if it is either unwanted or mistimed. The former occurs when no child or no more children are desired, and the latter is when the conception occurs earlier than the desired time, but wanted later. Unwanted pregnancy causes a serious health, economic, and social problem to the woman and her family. In the study area, there is limited data on unintended pregnancy. Therefore, this study fills this gap by studying the magnitude of unintended pregnancy and its associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in the study area. Methods. A facility-based cross-sectional study was done from 1 March to 1 April 2019, among 612 randomly selected pregnant women attending antenatal care at Bako Tibe district public health facility. The data were collected via interview using a structured and pretested questionnaire. They were entered into EpiData Version 3.1 and SPSS Version 23 for cleaning and analyses. The variables, which were significant at P≤0.2 in the bivariate logistic regression, were included in the multivariable analysis. The direction and strength of statistical association were measured by an odds ratio with 95% CI. A variable with a P value < 0.05 was considered a significantly associated factor with the outcome one. Results. In this study, the prevalence of unintended pregnancy was 33.3%, at 95% CI (29.8, 37.3). The factors that had significant association with unintended pregnancy were family size≥6 (AOR=8.0, 95% CI: 1.38–46.66), women who did not communicate about family planning with their husbands (AOR=2.8, 95% CI: 1.50–5.20), and parity≥5 (AOR=3.0, 95% CI: 1.34–6.8). Conclusion. About one-third of the pregnant women reported that their pregnancy was unintended. Parity, family size, and lack of spousal communication showed a significant association with the problem. To decrease the current level of unintended pregnancy in the area, the Bako Tibe District Health Bureau and the health workers should work harder to scale up spousal communication on family planning.

Prevalence of unintended pregnancy and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics

“…The present study found that nearly one third of women with UP were multigravida. This finding was almost similar to Goshu [26] who found that when gravidity increased, the probability of exposure to UP was increased. Moreover, Fite [18] revealed that women whose gravidity 5 and above were 3.88 times more likely to have unintended pregnancy than those whose gravidity 1-2.…”

“…This association may be due to illiteracy, poverty, higher fertility rate, limited availability of health services, and poor utilization of social and health services that characterize rural areas. This finding was matched with Goshu [26] who found that the majority of the studied women were lived in rural areas and unemployed. On the other hand, Mohamed [19] showed that employed women were more likely had UP than unemployed women.…”

Unintended Pregnancy During COVID-19 Pandemic Among Women Attending Antenatal Care in Northwest Ethiopia: Magnitude and Associated Factors

“…Whereas mistimed pregnancy is described as when the pregnancy occurs earlier to the desired time but needed later. 4 In general, unintended pregnancy is a pregnancy that occurred without consideration of whether or not contraception was being used but the pregnancy was not wanted at the time conception occurred. 5 , 6 It is a public health issue globally, and it is one of the major reproductive and sexual health problem which ends with a higher risk of mortality and morbidity among reproductive age groups of women.…”

Factors Influencing Unintended Pregnancies among Childbearing Age Women in Indonesia

“…Age as a determinant unintended pregnancy was also found in previous studies 9,14,15 . Age other than related to the unpreparedness of women when they were teenagers 16,17 , also related to the number of children desired and the reproductive ability of women 18 .…”

“…The analysis found that husband/partner only decision making was a risk factor for unintended pregnancy among childbearing age women in Indonesia. This condition is related to the lack or deadlock of communication between women and their partners 14,18,19 . Several previous studies have found the same information, unintended pregnancy is closely related to women's independence in making decisions about their reproductive health 25,26 .…”