CONTEXT Unintended pregnancies occur far too often in the United States, and half occur when couples fail to practice contraception. Improved measures of the continuity of women's contraceptive use, nonuse and switching patterns can help identify ways to reduce unintended pregnancy. METHODS A nationally representative sample of 1,978 adult women at risk of unintended pregnancy was surveyed by...

BACKGROUND Introducing a new method into family planning programs requires careful attention to ensure it meets an actual need and has a positive effect on program goals. The Standard Days Method® is a fertility awareness-based method of family planning that is being introduced into family planning programs in countries around the world. It is different from other methods offered by programs, a...

BACKGROUND Despite the widespread use of highly effective contraceptive methods in France, one in every three pregnancies is unintended. Among women experiencing an unintended pregnancy leading to an abortion, half had changed their contraceptive method in the 6 months preceding the abortion, in most cases switching to a less-effective method or to no method at all. This study provides estimate...

Contraceptive failure rates for modern methods including sterilization are reported to be high in China, but little is known about the consequence of contraceptive failure and characteristics of women who decide to have an abortion if a contraceptive failure occurs. Using 6225 contraceptive failures from the 1988 Chinese Two-per-Thousand Fertility Survey, this study examines the resolution of c...

CONTEXT Trends in teenagers' contraceptive use have received less attention than trends in adolescent sexual intercourse, despite the importance of contraceptive use to preventing teenage pregnancy. METHODS Sexually active high school students' use of contraceptives and risk of pregnancy from 1991 to 2003 were examined using data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey and published cont...

Women who report use of postpartum family planning may not continue their initial method or use it consistently. Understanding the patterns of method uptake, discontinuation, and switching among women after delivery is important to promote uptake and continuation of effective methods of contraception. This is a secondary analysis of 634 Malawian women enrolled into a prospective cohort study af...

OBJECTIVES A substantial proportion of women who undergo an abortion continue afterwards without switching to more effective contraceptive use. Many subsequently have repeat unintended pregnancies. This study, therefore, aimed to identify and describe health professionalś experiences of providing contraceptive counselling to women seeking an abortion. METHODS We interviewed 21 health professi...

Paper Presentation Objective I ntimate partner violence is a significant public health issue, with approximately 25% of women reporting lifetime violence. Intimate partner violence has been associated with unintended pregnancy, possibly due to partner coercion or interference with contraceptive. The specific aim of this study was to describe the association between intimate partner violence and...

CONTEXT Method mix-the percentage distribution of contraceptive users in a given country, by method-is one measure that reflects the availability of a range of contraceptive methods. A skewed method mix-one in which 50% or more of contraceptive users rely on a single method-could be cause for concern as a sign of insufficiency of alternative methods or provider bias. Shifts in method mix are im...