Family Planning and the Burden of Unintended Pregnancies

Abstract

Family planning is hailed as one of the great public health achievements of the last century, and worldwide acceptance has risen to three-fifths of exposed couples. In many countries, however, uptake of modern contraception is constrained by limited access and weak service delivery, and the burden of unintended pregnancy is still large. This review focuses on family planning's efficacy in preventing unintended pregnancies and their health burden. The authors first describe an epidemiologic framework for reproductive behavior and pregnancy intendedness and use it to guide the review of 21 recent, individual-level studies of pregnancy intentions, health outcomes, and contraception. They then review population-level studies of family planning's relation to reproductive, maternal, and newborn health benefits. Family planning is documented to prevent mother-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus, contribute to birth spacing, lower infant mortality risk, and reduce the number of abortions, especially unsafe ones. It is also shown to significantly lower maternal mortality and maternal morbidity associated with unintended pregnancy. Still, a new generation of research is needed to investigate the modest correlation between unintended pregnancy and contraceptive use rates to derive the full health benefits of a proven and cost-effective reproductive technology.

Implanon Discontinuation Rate and Associated Factors among Women who ever Used Implanon in the Last Three Years in Debre Markos Town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2016, Cross Sectional Study

“…It is a single rod, containing 68mg of Etonogestrel to offer contraception for three years [1]. Contraceptive discontinuations contribute substantially to the total fertility rate, unwanted pregnancies,and induced abortions [2,3]. An estimated 13% of maternal mortality from unsafe abortion is due to unintended pregnancy [4].…”

Measuring unintended pregnancies in postpartum Iranian women: validation of the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy

“…Research evidence that provides baseline information about the current status of mothers regarding their needs for better family planning services is non-existent or meagre in many developing countries. Most current estimates of the levels of unintended pregnancies in developing countries are based on questions used in the national demographic and health surveys (4). Application of non-standard procedures to determine unmet needs of reproductive health, however, might put these figures under scrutiny.…”

Breast Cancer Thirty Years Later: A Comparative Study between A 1983-1984 AND A 2012-2013 Cohorts of Argentine Women

“…Indirectly related to all the factors described is the use of OC. The increase of 2.8 times of patients using oral contraceptives (OC) in the 2012-2013 series is a worrying fact but we should keep in mind that when the cohort of women, in the 2012-2013 series, was at ages of reproduction the OC use as a method of familiar planning [45] was widespread among us and its adverse effects were less known and studied than at present [46]. The practice of lactation is currently considered as one of the most proven protective factors against BC [47,48].…”