Prevalence of unintended pregnancy among patients attending antenatal clinics in a tertiary hospital in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Unwanted or unintended pregnancy is a pregnancy not desired at the time of conception. This study was 
carried out to assess the prevalence of unwanted pregnancy among married women attending antenatal 
clinic and factors responsible for this trend. 2000 Antenatal patients were counseled to participate in this 
questionnaire based study however 1600 consented. Questions asked included socio-demographic data, 
contraceptive practice and sexual history. 400 were discarded for inadequate information. Of the final 1200 
patients studied, 99% were married whilst 1% was unmarried. Forty-nine (49%) had only one partner, 25% 
had 2 partners, 27% had more than 3 partners since first intercourse. Twenty one (21%) of the study group 
did not desire the pregnancy at the time of conception. Analysis of the contraceptive history showed only 
29% used any form of contraception whilst 71% were non-users. We concluded that the high degree of 
unwanted pregnancy among antenatal patients is due to the low acceptability/or usage of contraception. 
We therefore advocate the intensification of contraceptive counseling both at Antenatal and postnatal 
clinics to patients and their husband.