Prevalence of Unintended Pregnancy and Child Birth and its Determinants in Harar Town; Ethiopia
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Date
2002-04
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Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
Unintended pregnancy and births could have negative consequences for children, for their
parents, for their sibling and for the society as a whole. Regardless of the level of health
care access and use reducing the number of pregnancies will lower maternal death rates.
A descriptive cross sectional study design was used to assess the prevalence and socio
demographic determinants of unintended pregnancy and or childbirth in Harar town. The
study was carried out in nine kebeles, from three keftegnas of the town.
A multistage sampling technique was conducted to select a total of 1000 females of
reproductive age group (15-49 years) for interview. A structured questionnaire survey and
four-paired focus group discussion were used as the method of data collection.
A total of 983 females aged 15-49 years randomly selected women responded to a
pretested structured questionnaire designed to illicit information concerning most recent
unintended pregnancies, childbirth and induced abortions.
Fifty five point six percent of the respondents were currently married, 29.7 % never
married, 9.4 % were divorced/separated and the rest 5.3% were widowed. The mean age
at first marriage was 18.8(SD=4.5)
The majority of the respondents were found to have formal education. Knowledge of
contraceptive method showed 96.6 % of the respondents knew at least one method.
Among 785 sexually active women 326(41.5%) were reported to be current user of
modern contraceptive method 195(33.7%) had ever used MC but 264(24.8%) among
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sexually active women were non-users.
The occupational status indicated that 321(32.7 %) were employed including self
employment 429(43.6%) were housewives, students constituted 127 (12.9%) and 106
(10.8%) were unemployed
Two hundreds twenty-five out of 675 ever pregnant surveyed respondents (33.33%)
reported that their most recent pregnancies were unintended. Of these, about half 112 out
of 225 reported had unintended childbirth and the rest 113 ended in induced abortion. The
prevalence of unintended childbirth constituted about 16.59 % while induced abortion was
found to be nearly 16.74 %.
Age at first marriage, marital status, education and number of pregnancies, respondents
age and economic status were found to be the key predictors of unintended pregnancy or
it’s measured outcomes: unintended births and induced abortions.
System design and coherent strategy will be very important to meet unmet needs that
result in unplanned and unwanted fertility both with respect to strengthen advocacy and
increase access of modern contraceptive methods through community distribution and
other social organizations as well as empowerment of women which enables them to be
decision maker in their sexual and other aspects of life.
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Keywords
Prevalence of Unintended Pregnancy