Subsequent pregnancies: who has them and who wants them? Observations from an urban center in southern Brazil.

ABSTRACT

PIP: Researchers followed 5914 children born in 1982 in Pelotas, an urban center in southern Brazil, and interviewed the mothers about subsequent pregnancies between 35-52 months of the cohort child's age to gather data on these pregnancies. 39% of the mothers had at least 1 pregnancy after the cohort child. 78% of them had =or+ 1 child while the remainder had at least 1 abortion. Additional pregnancies occurred more often among lower income women (p.001). In addition, as age and years of schooling rose, the number of subsequent pregnancies fell (p =or- .001). If the cohort child was the 3rd child, the mother was less likely to have a subsequent pregnancy, but the odds ratio fell up to the 3rd child then increased (p.001). This U shaped trend was especially pronounced after adjusting for other factors. A possible explanation for this trend could be due to desired family size and access to sterilization. Other than women who had undergone sterilization, women who delivered their cohort child by cesarean section were least likely to have a subsequent birth, even after adjusting age, income, parity, and education (p.001). This may be due to fear of surgery or these women followed medical advice. The percentage of women who did not want the subsequent pregnancy fell as income, education, and age climbed (p.001). Moreover it increased with parity, especially among richer women. In fact, women of high parity and high income were more likely to have experienced an unwanted subsequent pregnancy than those of high parity and moderate and low income (p.01).