Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Unwanted pregnancies are one of the major problems in developing countries and have effects on population growth and maternal child health. Population of many poor countries will double in less than 20 years due to the mentioned problem. Determining frequency of this type of pregnancies can provide a basic piece of information about population growth problems and can help us with conducting proper plans for its control. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of unwanted pregnancies and related factors in two big hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences. In this cross-sectional study 410 women who were between 16 to 45 years of age were assessed in Akbar Abadi and Rasoul-e-Akram Hospitals in 2002. Method of sampling was non probability and method of collecting and assembling data was interview and form respectively. STATA software and chi-square test were used for data analysis. Overall, unwanted pregnancy ratio was 26.9%. 42% of women with unwanted pregnancy used modern contraception methods, 53.8% of them used the methods in a wrong way and 19.3% of women had at least one abortion in their medical histories. There was a significant correlation between unwanted pregnancy and women’s age and job, husband’s level of education and parity. By considering high rate of unwanted pregnancy in this study, making women aware of proper use of modern contraception methods is suggested. Also, increasing literacy level of women and their husbands and establishing proper job opportunities for them, can decrease unwanted pregnancy ratio during long-time period.