Unintended Pregnancy among Rural Women in Bangladesh

Forhana Noor, Population Council
Moshiur Rahman, Population Council
Benjamin Bellows, Population Council

Unintended pregnancies are associated with unsafe abortion and greater risk of maternal morbidity and deaths. Considering the magnitude of the situation and its consequences, this paper explores factors associated with the prevalence of unintended pregnancies in rural Bangladesh with implications for policy intervention. A total of 3300 women were interviewed to collect information on related issues. Findings reveal that about 29 percent of the pregnancies were unintended and the frequency was higher among the older, less educated, higher parity and poor women. Findings also suggest that unintended pregnancy rate was higher (33 percent) among women who used contraceptive before their last pregnancy than women (23 percent) who did not use any contraceptive. The rate of unintended pregnancy also varied, by the types of contraceptive methods used. The findings underscore the importance of measuring contraceptive discontinuation rates in addition to prevalence of all modern methods.