Health Consequences Associated with Unplanned Childbearing

Evelyn Fuentes-Rivera, El Colegio de Mexico
Fatima Juarez, El Colegio de Mexico
Cecilia Gayet, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify the consequences and health behaviors of women and newborn associated with unplanned childbearing in Mexico Methods A quantitative analysis of secondary data was performed using the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics 2018. Our final sample included 14,007 women aged 15-49 who had a live-born child within the 36 months preceding the interview. For the study of the consequences of unplanned childbearing, 7 analyses were conducted using multivariate binary logistic regression models. Each model included the correspondent outcome variable, intention variable and control variables. Results Of the total analytical sample, 61.7% of the women reported that their last birth was planned. 19.5% wanted to wait longer, and 18.1% did not want to become pregnant either at that time or later. Multivariate results showed that women with unplanned births were less likely to have adequate prenatal care, more likely to have some physical complication during pregnancy. It was also found that women with unwanted births were more likely to experience postpartum depression. Discussion These results suggest that policies aimed at preventing unintended childbearing, would also help to mitigate complications during pregnancy and postpartum depression as well as increase access to prenatal care.

Keywords: Fertility, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Family Planning and Contraception, Health and Morbidity

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