Happiness About Unintended Pregnancy and its Relationship to Contraceptive Desires Among a Predominantly Latina Cohort

pCONTEXTbr /
Women frequently profess happiness about unintended pregnancies; such incongruence is associated with use of less effective contraceptive methods and inconsistent or incorrect method use. Yet, the methods women use may differ from those they desire.br /
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METHODSbr /
Data on 578 women were drawn from a prospective survey of postpartum women aged 18ndash;44 recruited from three hospitals in Texas between 2012 and 2014. Jonckheere-Terpstra tests were used to compare women#39;s feelings about a future pregnancy with their childbearing intentions. Fisher-Freeman-Halton tests compared distributions of contraceptive methods currently used and desired by women who professed happiness about a future unintended pregnancy, as well as distributions of desired methods by women#39;s reported feelings.br /
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RESULTSbr /
The proportion of women who reported happiness about a future pregnancy was 59% among those intending to wait two or three years for another child, 46% among those intending to wait four or more years, and 36% among those intending to have no more children. Among women who professed happiness, a greater proportion desired to use a highly effective contraceptive method than were currently using one (72% vs. 15% among those intending no more children; 55% vs. 23% among those intending to wait at least four years; and 36% vs. 10% among those intending to wait two or three years). Across intention categories, the types of methods desired did not differ by whether women professed happiness or unhappiness.br /
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CONCLUSIONSbr /
Women who profess happiness about a future unintended pregnancy may nonetheless desire highly effective contraceptive methods./p