Evaluation of adverse outcomes of unwanted pregnancy on the women referring to Mazandran medical university hospitals, 1999-2000

Background and Regarding the high prevalence and adverse outcomes of unwanted pregnancies, this research was done on unwanted pregnant women referring to delivery department of Mazandran Medical Üniversity hospitals 1999-2000. This research is a descriptive study done on 1200 unwanted pregnant women referring to delivery department of university hospitals in Sari and Ghaemshahr cities. Women who become pregnant while using contraceptive were selected. The rates of spontaneous abortion, low birth weights and preterm delivery were estimated and compared with the rate in general population. Ânalysis of data was performed using SPSS program mean and standard deviation were determined. Ünwanted pregnancies were observed more in the age group of 18-35 (65.9%) years, 61% of whom were users of natural family planning method. No relation was observed between the number of gravidity and unwanted pregnancy. The rates of abortion, preterm labor, and low birth weights were 1.8%, 8.9% and 10.5% respectively which are lower than the rates of 10-15%, 10% and 10-15% in general population. Çonclusion: Âlthough the adverse outcomes in unwanted pregnancies had no significant difference compared to the general population, it still is considered as high risk pregnancy, because of its effect on the factors such as medical complications (infection, drug usage, etc) and health behavior (delay in antenatal care, insufficient nutrition). Ïmportant point relevant to the culture and religious of Ïranian society is that, the wantedness of the pregnancy will probably change with progress of gestation age.