Determinants of unintended pregnancy and its impact on the health of women in some governorates of Upper Egypt

Worldwide, more than half of all unintended pregnancies end in abortion, indicating the preference for increasingly smaller families. The present work aimed to assess the determinants of unintended pregnancy and its impact on women's health in El Fayoum and Benisuef governorates. A community-based cross-sectional household survey was conducted among 827 married women of reproductive age. The study was conducted in two governorates, El Fayoum and Benisuef, for a period of 6 months. The current study revealed that 15.9% of women who participated in the study had an unmet need for family planning, with subsequent unintended pregnancy. Higher age of women and her age at the time of marriage, illiteracy, short interpregnancy spacing, exceeding the desired number of children, negative attitude of husbands toward the use of family planning methods, and absence of discussion between partners on the use of means to postpone pregnancy increased the number of unintended pregnancies. Also, women with unintended pregnancy were at a higher risk of experiencing health problems during her pregnancy. Despite the efforts taken by family planners, the problem of unintended pregnancy continues to increase in Egypt, with its adverse effect on pregnancy and maternal outcomes. Therefore, the strategy for maternal mortality reduction in Egypt should focus on addressing the unmet needs of high-parity, uneducated, nonworking women

Women's awareness of obstetric danger symptoms: is there a need to promote a preconceptional educational program?

Awareness towards the symptoms of obstetric complications will lead to timely access to appropriate emergency obstetric care. The aim of the study was to assess and compare the awareness towards obstetric danger symptoms among never-pregnant and ever-pregnant women and to identify predictors of their awareness as a measure for the need to promote a preconceptional educational program in Egypt. This study was conducted in selected villages of Alfayoum and Benisuef governorates as a comparative study between 173 newly married never-pregnant women and 827 ever-pregnant women who were randomly targeted by a structured interview during a period of 8 months. The questionnaire included personal data, social data, and data related to awareness of obstetric danger symptoms, complications, and action taken on having any of these symptoms. The scoring system was designed for women's awareness, with one degree allocated for a correct answer. The study revealed that the percent of women who gained a score of knowledge of at least 50% was higher among ever-pregnant women than among never-pregnant women [43.9 and 19.1%, respectively]. Although bleeding is the highest reported cause for obstetric complications and is one of the reported causes of maternal deaths in the studied villages, only 26.6 and 20.2% of the never pregnant and 43.9 and 34.3% of the ever pregnant groups, respectively, knew that bleeding is a danger symptom during delivery and the postnatal period. Meanwhile, better awareness about obstetric danger symptoms and exposure to health educational messages was significantly higher among ever-pregnant women [OR = 3.08 and 2.28, respectively] [P < 0.001]. This study reflects the need for intensifying antenatal health educational messages given to pregnant women and the need for the implementation of preconceptional health education programs