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A Review of Unintended Child birth in Ethiopia: Magnitude and Contributing Factors

Aragaw Tesfaw, Maru Mekie, Wubet Taklual

Background: Unintended pregnancy is a major social and public health problem in the globe and a major cause of unsafe abortion, underutilization of prenatal care and low birth weight. In Ethiopia, according to the national demographic and health survey (2016) report , about 23 % of total last pregnancy were unintended. Therefore this review aimed to document the magnitude and major factors contributing to untended pregnancy from several Ethiopian studies.

Methods: The reviewed articles were searched from electronic databases (PubMed, MEDLINE and Google Scholar) using key words or phrases such as ‘unintended pregnancy’, ‘unwanted pregnancy’, mistimed pregnancy ‘ Factors ’ and ‘Ethiopia’. The reviewed studies included all epidemiologic studies (descriptive and comparative cross-sectional, and national demographic and health survey reports) published between the years 2008 and 2018.

Result: The magnitude of untended pregnancy was ranged from 13.7% to 42.4% in Ethiopia. Socio-demographic factors (marital status, distance to the nearest health facility, Occupation, educational status, husband preference and religious prohibition, income and place of residence), maternal/obstetric factors (maternal age, ever utilizations of any types of contraceptive methods, having child before and number of children, having history of abortion or still birth, ante natal visit, awareness of contraceptive) are the major contributing factors identified for unintended pregnancy in Ethiopia.

Conclusion and recommendation: The study found high prevalence of unintended childbirth in the country associated to various socio-demographic, maternal and obstetric contributing factors. Therefore there is a need for evidence based targeted interventions to increase access and use of modern contraceptive services and create awareness for the public is recommended.