Prevalence and determinant factors of unintended pregnancy among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics of Shashamane hospitals

ABSTRACT Background: Unintended pregnancy is one of the measures of quality of reproductive health service success or failure and is defined as a pregnancy that is not wanted and/or not planned at the time of conception. Unintended pregnancy remains a major public health problem in sub-Saharan countries including Ethiopia. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to assess the magnitude and determinants of unintended pregnancy among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics of Shashemene hospitals. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 380 pregnant women from March 25 to April 30/2019. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. The data were collected through a pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire and it was entered into EPIdata 3.1 and exported to SPSS 24 for further analysis. Binary and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify significant factors. Variables with P-value < 0.05 were used to declare statistical significance. Result: The magnitude of unintended pregnancy was 31.1%. Age 35-45 years (AOR=0.2 95% CI; 1.057-0.8), parity ≥3 (AOR= 9.7 95% CI; 2.0-47.7), poor knowledge of family planning (AOR= 2.85 95% CI; 1.54-5.3), being rural residence (AOR = 1.27 95% CI; 2.15-4.5), and low husbands educational level (AOR= 4.34 95%CI; 2.16-9.73) were some of factors which affect unintended pregnancy.   Conclusion: The magnitude of unintended pregnancy is high in the study area. Low educational status of the husband, maternal age, parity, residence, and knowledge of mothers on family planning was the most important determinant factor of unintended pregnancy. Increase timely awareness and utilization of reproductive health care services like modern contraceptives are recommended for reducing the prevalence of unplanned pregnancy.