A survey on the prevalence of unwanted pregnancy and some related factors in pregnant women who referred to the medical laboratories in Semnan

Introduction: Unwanted pregnancy is one of the most important problems in communities. It endangers the mother and child health and it imposes much expense on the health and treatment system. Studies show that the total number of pregnancy in the world is about 200 million cases per year approximately one third of them are unwanted pregnancy. Ninety fiver percent of these unwanted pregnancies occur in the developing countries such as Iran. Regarding the high prevalence rate of the unwanted pregnancy in these countries, thus, we decided to evaluate the unwanted pregnancy prevalence rate in Semnan. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 405 women referring to Semnan laboratories for pregnancy test. Following receiving the result of test, a questionnaire was completed by patients or interviewer. The Chi-square test was used to analyze the data in the 5% significant level. Results: The prevalence of unwanted pregnancy prevalence was 25.7% (95% Confidence Interval: 21.4%-30%). The prevalence of unwanted pregnancy was 7.9%, 27.9%, 77.3%, 78.9% and 91.7% in women without children, with one, two, three, and four or more children, respectively. The prevalence of unwanted pregnancy was 25.4% in housewives and 27.4% in employed women. In addition, 63.6% of illiterate women, 31.8% of women with primary school certificate, 29.3% of the guidance, school literate ones, 19.5% with high school and 19.7% with academic studies had unwanted pregnancy. There was a significant relationship between the unwanted pregnancy prevalence and the literate level of women, the number of children and age (P=0.0001). But there was no significant relationship between the unwanted pregnancy prevalence and employment. Conclusion: Regarding the high unwanted pregnancy prevalence in Semnan compared to its mean in Iran and greater prevalence of unwanted pregnancy in the illiterate women, it seems reconsideration in the family planning services by health centers and expansion of the training programs about preventing the pregnancy in community especially for illiterate women is necessary.