Unintended Pregnancy among Married Pregnant Women in Nepal

Introduction: Unintended pregnancy is an issue for many women irrespective of the place of residence or country. This study examined the prevalence of unintended pregnancy and the factors associated with it among pregnant married women of Nepal. Methodology: This study utilizes the data from Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2011 which is a nationally representative cross-sectional survey. The survey was conducted among all women in the reproductive age group (15-49 years). However, the present analysis is restricted to married women who were pregnant at the time of survey (N=798). Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association of unintended pregnancy with the socio-demographic factors. Results: More than half (54.5%) of the currently pregnant women reported that their current pregnancy was unintended. The multivariate adjusted results indicate that older and educated women were less likely to experience unintended pregnancies. Unintended pregnancies were more common among women belonging to poorer quintile of the wealth index (OR 4.83, 95% CI 2.64-8.86), having more than two children (OR 6.15, 95 % CI 3.6610.33) or women with the history of terminated pregnancy (OR 2.85, 95% CI 1.70-4.70) as compared to the respective reference groups. Conclusion: Unintended pregnancies are still very common in Nepal. Older and educated women were less vulnerable to unintended pregnancy whereas women with more than two children and women having the history of terminated pregnancy were more vulnerable to it. Therefore, programs and policies should be aimed at these women to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies.