Fertility Following an Unintended First Birth

Abstract

Research on unintended fertility tends to focus on births as isolated events. This article expands previous research by examining the relationship between early unintended childbearing and subsequent fertility dynamics in the United States. Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth show that 27.5% of mothers report an unintended first birth. We use event history methods to show that these women are significantly more likely than women with an intended first birth to have an unintended second birth than to have either no second birth or an intended second birth, net of sociodemographic characteristics. An unintended first birth also increases the risk of having an unintended third birth relative to no birth or an intended birth, independent of the intendedness of the second birth. We conclude that early unintended fertility is a strong signal of high risk for subsequent unintended fertility.

Variation in Pregnancy Intendedness Across U.S. Women’s Pregnancies

“…Further, respondents' intentions for each pregnancy relied on retrospective reports. There has been considerable debate on the validity of retrospective reports of pregnancy intentions, though confidence of reports of unintended births is high [5]. In this study, the time between the most recent pregnancy and the interview date was more than 7 years, which may lead to incorrect reporting in some cases.…”

“…There is evidence that the intendedness of a first birth-or lack thereof-is associated with subsequent intendedness [5]. This has important implications for inter-conception care, life course, and behavioral risk factor research.…”

Birth spacing, human capital, and the motherhood penalty at midlife in the United States

“…Nonblack, non-Hispanic is the omitted category and is referred to as white for simplicity. There are strong effects of marital status on first-birth timing and the pace of subsequent fertility (Bumpass, Rindfuss, and Janosik 1977;Guzzo and Hayford 2011;Manning 1995). Marital status is a categorical variable with three categories: never married/widowed, 10 married, and separated/divorced.…”

Unwanted Fertility Differentials of Nepalese Mothers

“…Unintended births are then the sum of all births identified as unwanted or mistimed (Guzzo & Hayford, 2011). Measurement of unwanted fertility through indirect techniques has received great attention of demographers.…”

“…The unintended pregnancy rate for black women also has important implications for race differences in having more children than intended and the race differences between black and white women in the likelihood of overachieving fertility intentions (versus achieving intentions) were largely eliminated after accounting for experiencing births from pregnancies that the women themselves retrospectively called unwanted or mistimed (Guzzo & Hayford, 2011;Morgan & Rackin, 2010). The literature identifies striking race and education differences in the types of birth control used (Mosher & Jones, 2010).…”