Are Latina Women Ambivalent About Pregnancies They Are Trying to Prevent?
pCONTEXT: Womenrsquo;s retrospective reports of their feelings about a pregnancy and of its intendedness are oftenbr /
inconsistent, particularly among Latinas. Interpretation of this incongruence as ambivalence overlooks the possibilitybr /
that happiness about the prospect of pregnancy and desire to prevent pregnancy need not be mutually exclusive.br /
METHODS: Data from the 2006ndash;2008 Border Contraceptive Access Studymdash;a prospective study of 956 Latina oralbr /
contraceptive users aged 18ndash;44 in El Paso, Texasmdash;were used to compare womenrsquo;s planned pill use and childbearingbr /
intentions with their feelings about a possible pregnancy. Associations between womenrsquo;s feelings and their perceptionsbr /
of their partnerrsquo;s feelings were examined using logistic regression. Prospective and retrospective intentions andbr /
feelings were compared among women who became pregnant during the study.br /
RESULTS: Forty-one percent of women who planned to use the pill for at least another year and 34% of those whobr /
wanted no more children said they would feel very or somewhat happy about becoming pregnant in the next threebr /
months. Perceiving that a male partner would feel very upset about a pregnancy was negatively associated withbr /
happiness about the pregnancy among both women who planned to continue pill use and those who wanted nobr /
more children (coefficients, ndash;4.4 and ndash;3.9, respectively). Of the 36 women who became pregnant during the study,br /
24 reported feeling very happy about the pregnancy in retrospect, while only 14 had prospectively reported feelingbr /
happy about a possible pregnancy.br /
CONCLUSION: Intentions and happiness appear to be distinct concepts for this sample of Latina women./p