Correlates of Unintended Pregnancy among Currently Pregnant Married Women in Uganda

Pushendra Mishra, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Bhaskar Mishra, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Jay Shankar Dixit, GFK-Mode Pvt. Ltd.

This paper is an attempt to explore the prevalence and factors which are associated with unintended pregnancy among currently pregnant married women in Uganda. The finding of this study would help programme planners and policy makers to understand various factors influencing unintended pregnancy in Uganda. In Uganda, unintended pregnancy is very common which lead to high levels of unplanned births, unsafe abortion and maternal injury and death. More than four births in 10 births are unplanned and on average women has about two children more than they want (6.2 vs. 4.5) (DHS, 2011). This study uses Uganda Demographic Health Survey data conducted recently in 2011. The study finding shows that, 45.2% of the currently pregnant married women reported their current pregnancies as unintended. Further, study finding suggested that mainly two factors such as media exposure and partner education are important to reduce unintended pregnancy in Uganda.