Does History of Pregnancy Termination Affect Future Pregnancy Intention and Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa? A Meta-Analysis of DHS Data

Muhammed Aziz Ngouloure, Ministry of the Economy Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT)

The impact of a history of pregnancy termination on future pregnancy intentions and outcomes is a critical area of research. Some studies suggest that a history of pregnancy termination can lead preterm birth, low birthweight, and other complications in future pregnancies, while other studies indicate it can influence women's opinions and intentions regarding future pregnancies. The available literature on this topic refers extensively to developed countries. what about the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) context? This study aims to investigate how the history of pregnancy termination affects women’s reproductive life, especially future pregnancy intention and pregnancy outcomes in SSA. More specifically, the aim is to: Assess the overall effects of the history of abortion miscarriage and stillbirth on unintended pregnancy Assess the overall effects of the history of of abortion miscarriage and stillbirth on future birth outcome Meta-analysis will be performed using the latest available DHS data of 20 SSA countries. We will consider all nationally representative DHS databases with individual data records available for sub-Saharan African countries. We will compute prevalence and odds ratios for each of the country included in this study. We will then estimate pooled prevalence and pooled odds ratios using fixed and random effect models.

Keywords: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Health and Morbidity, Fertility

See extended abstract.