Do Fertility Intention and Experience of Unwanted Pregnancy Influence Contraceptive Behaviour?

Latifat Ibisomi, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)
Jean-Christophe Fotso, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

This paper investigates the joint effect of fertility intention and experience of unwanted pregnancy on contraceptive use among women aged 15-49 years in urban Kenya. Studies have shown that fertility intention of women is a good predictor of their contraceptive behavior while use of ineffective method of contraception often lead to unwanted pregnancy among women who want to delay or stop childbearing. However, the impact of experience(s) of unwanted pregnancy on contraceptive use and how this is moderated by fertility intention of women remain largely unexplored. Data for the paper will be obtained from an ongoing study in two slum and two non-slum settlements in urban Kenya. Bivariate methods will be used to establish associations while multivariate methods will be used to isolate the individual and joint influence of fertility intention and experience of unwanted pregnancy on contraceptive use. The implications of the findings will be discussed.