ABSTRACT
Unintended pregnancies are those conceived without desire. They may be unwanted or mistimed, yet wanted. Unintended births are of major public health concern, they have serious health, social and economic consequences. - To estimate the prevalence rate of unintended pregnancy among pregnant women attending El- Shatby Maternity Hospital in Alexandria. - To reveal some characteristics of women with unintended pregnancy. - To examine the relation between pregnancy intendedness and risk of adverse pregnancy outcome. A descriptive cross-sectional epidemiological approach was adopted. The target population was all pregnant women attending El- Shatby Maternity University Hospital in Alexandria for either abortion or delivery. The field work was carried out between February 1998 to August 1998. An interview questionnaire was used for collection of data. The results revealed that the prevalence rate of unintended pregnancy among the studied women was 68.98% [42.13% was for mistimed and 26.87% was for unwanted pregnancies]. The percent of unintended pregnancy increased significantly with age from 55.26% among the youngest women [15- < 25 years] to reach 87.88% among those aged 40- 49 years. Moreover, it also increased with the number of family surviving children. No statistical significant differences were observed between women with either intended or unintended pregnancies as regard rural- urban residence, educational level and work status. Regarding the contraceptive use prior to the index pregnancy, all the users didn't intend to become pregnant. On the other hand, it was revealed that more than one third of non contraceptive users [34.31%] didn't intend to become pregnant. Women with unintended pregnancies were significantly less likely to seek antenatal care and to breast feed their babies. When the risk of abnormal pregnancy outcome was quantified, it was observed that unintended pregnancy was a risk for abortion either spontaneous or induced, where OR = 1.375 and 8.25 respectively. The prevalence rate of unintended pregnancy was 68.98%. Unintended pregnancy was associated with increasing both the age of mothers and the number of their live births. Unintendedness of pregnancy was associated with increased risk of abortion as an adverse pregnancy outcome