Pregnancy planning and acceptance among Danish pregnant women

To study how living conditions influence pregnancy planning and acceptance among Danish women.

A cross-sectional questionnaire study performed among 3516 pregnant women attending Odense University Hospital, Denmark. The study population consisted of women with spontaneous abortion, women with ectopic pregnancies, women attending antenatal care and women with induced abortion. They were divided into four groups: women with planned and accepted pregnancies (accepting planners, n=2137), women who accepted an initially unplanned pregnancy (accepting non-planners, n=1006), women who rejected an initially planned pregnancy (rejecting planners, n=31), and women with unplanned and rejected pregnancies (rejecting non-planners, n=342). The association between socio-economic characteristics and pregnancy planning and acceptance was evaluated by comparing accepting non-planners with accepting planners and by comparing rejecting planners with rejecting non-planners. The variables studied comprise age, number of children, partner relationship, education, occupation, economic situation and contraceptives.

The characteristics of accepting non-planners and accepting planners were in accordance and in contrast to those of rejecting planners and in particular of rejecting non-planners. The contraceptive prevalence rate among accepting non-planners was 15%. Among rejecting non-planners the same figure was 51%.

Accepting non-planners seemed to be in a situation which could be considered appropriate for childbirth. The contraceptive prevalence rate among accepting non-planners was low and might reflect that these women were not entirely against the thought of having a child, although they did not actively plan to have one.