Unintended pregnancy is a pregnancy that is reported to have been undesired or unwanted. It results in a big problem with an increased risk for the health of both mom & baby.
Sexual activity without the use of contraception is the biggest cause of unintended pregnancy. A healthcare center survey shows that about 40 percent of pregnancies out of 85 million pregnancies are unplanned. 50 percent of unplanned pregnancies are aborted, 13 percent result in miscarriage, and 38 percent of pregnancies end up in unplanned birth. Unintended pregnancies can result in long-term health risks such as infertility and maternal death.
The highest rate of teenage unplanned pregnancy in the world is in Africa. 143 per 1000 girls aged 15-19 are getting pregnant in Africa.
Causes of an Unintended Pregnancy
In many countries, emergency contraceptive pills are not available without a prescription. It often happens that women are not able to get an appointment with their gynecologists within 72 hours. The actual failure rate of birth control pills is 9%. The main reason behind the failure rate of birth control methods is human error. Consuming pills too late after having sex also causes pregnancy. Many times, women leave unprotected sex as a chance and do not take it seriously.
Unintended pregnancy may happen if you are only depending on the ovulation cycle for safe sex. Couples also indulge in practices like withdrawal or pulling out method for contraception whose efficacy is low and which results in unintended pregnancy.
Girls in teenage are often unaware of which sexual act will lead to pregnancy. If there is adequate knowledge of sex and its consequences then there will be a drastic change in the graph of unplanned pregnancy. Unintended pregnancies may also cause when unwanted things to happen such as rape.
The actual efficacy of birth control methods is getting lower due to human error. And hence, an unplanned pregnancy can happen. The failure rate of birth control methods is 5-8%. Condoms do break when it is used with oil-based lubricant or when they are not worn correctly. Many studies have shown that condoms have less failure rate than other methods of birth control. However, when a condom is used perfectly its failure rate is less than 1 percent. It is one of the safest and easiest birth control methods having no side effects.
Consequences of unintended pregnancies
Getting pregnant is always a blessing from heaven. However, these blessings can turn into the unwelcome blessings if it is unplanned or accidental. In such a situation, a birth contraceptives method plays an important role. There are so many concerns of having unintended pregnancy which is as follows-
In some cases, unintended pregnancy is resolved by abortion. However, abortion causes many negative effects such as infertility and maternal death. It can be legal or illegal. Abortion after the trimester of pregnancy is considered illegal. And it causes many health impacts to women’s health.
The rates of mortality of pregnant women are more in such cases. While abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy causes fewer health risks. However, both types of abortion carry the intrinsic risk of medical complications such as uterus infection, cervical infections, vaginal infections & many others.
Induced abortion is done to avoid unplanned pregnancy. In such an abortion, a fetus is expelled from the uterine cavity through saline or potassium chloride injection. The injection is inserted into the amniotic sac that covers the fetus. The medicine through injection is inserted vaginally to induce contraction.
Abortion also causes nausea, stress, depression. It causes excessive bleeding, the uterus could be damaged due to injection methods, extreme pain, and subsequent soreness of internal organs, half an abortion also can happen. In such cases, there will be heavy bleeding, severe abdominal & back pain.
There are several other medical complications caused due to unintended pregnancy.
- Mostly low birth weight & mentally disturbed mothers affect an infant’s health too.
- In some cases, a pregnant woman becomes single due to some circumstances & then she has to face many social and financial problems. Because of which the mental health of both mother and child is been affected.
Hence, there is only one solution for such a problem is “precaution”. There are so many birth control methods available to you. All are useful to prevent unintended pregnancies but the safe one is only a barrier control method.
There are two major forms of birth control methods barrier and hormonal. The barrier birth control method can stop sperm from entering the uterus. And hormonal birth control method can regulate ovulation. Everyone chooses the method as per their perspective.
A barrier birth control method is the best option for a woman who does not want to use the hormonal birth control method. It is also safe for nursing mothers.
To get complete information about birth control methods, click on the following link: https://bit.ly/3tCMkhK
How to deal with a situation of unintended pregnancy?
Take good care of yourself. If you were not expecting to get pregnant; you may feel stressed, depressed, or guilty. If you do, talk to your doctor or another health professional, such as a psychologist or gynecologist. You may feel down. Hence, eat healthily and drink lots of water to help keep your energy up.
An unplanned pregnancy can disturb your life completely. But this doesn’t mean that it is the end of the solution. You can solve the worst situation if you give yourself time to recover from the initial shock. Here are a few things if you find yourself in a similar situation:
- Don’t Panic: Remember this is not the end of your freedom. Of course, it is an emergency but it can be worsened if you panic at the first occurrence.
- Think Rationally: The first emotion to hit a couple when they are faced with an unplanned pregnancy is guilt, shame & stigma. You may feel cheated by your partner if he does not take responsibility. You have to think only about how to go ahead in life. The key is to think rationally and to be positive.
- Learn from it: Once you have experienced this situation, you will have to ensure you do not have to deal with a similar situation again. Use proper contraception every time while having sex.
- Take responsibility: Take responsibility for your actions and you will feel better when both persons are getting involved to solve the situation. And handle the situation with an established mind.
Sometimes deciding what to do about an unplanned pregnancy is easy only when both partners accept the pregnancy. Other times, it’s complicated. You’re the only person walking in your shoes, so the decision is 100% in your hands.
There are some options if you get an unintended pregnancy-
1) Parenting
2) Abortion
3) Adoption
Parenting meant to be taking responsibility for having a child and its upbringing with mutual consent.
Abortion means not having any responsibility i.e. removing fetus completely from the uterus.
Adoption is a process where a third person except the two partners accepts the parenting of a child.
If you want to avoid unintended pregnancies, take the following precautions
- If you really want to avoid unintended pregnancy then you should always be careful that your partner is using a condom every time while having sex.
- Always use emergency contraception pills if you have insecurity about the birth-control methods used. Pills should be used only in case you have not used condoms while having sex as it also has some side effects.
- Unprotected sexual activity during adolescence may affect the girl’s health & quality of life as well. This can also cause early pregnancy, HIV, other STDs, & abortion. The only solution to avoid unwanted pregnancy in adolescence is sex education for teens. Sex education can give teens information about sex & sexual health which clearly can decrease the rate of unintended pregnancy.
- How would you calculate your fertile window?
Knowing your fertile window is also a solution to avoid unintended pregnancy.
To calculate your fertile window, you will need to know at what day you ovulate. To calculate this fertile window, you need to know the length of your menstrual cycle which can vary from 25 days to 30 days. From this number, subtract 14 days from the end of your current cycle. i.e. Ovulation happens 14 days from the end of your current menstruation cycle. This will be your approximate day of ovulation.
- Which will be your safe days?
Having unprotected sex at any time is always risky. But chances of getting pregnant right before your periods are very low; you may say it as safe days. You may also call it the safe day just after your periods. But the safe days will be within 3 days after having periods. Sperm can fertilize an egg for 72 hours after having unprotected sex.
Some General Questions Asked related to unintended pregnancy
1) If 1000 women with an unintended pregnancy walk into an unbiased pregnancy clinic, how many would ultimately choose adoption, abortion, or birth?
- 50% of all pregnancies in the US are unintended pregnancies.
- 40% rate of those unintended pregnancies ends up in abortion.
- 60% rate of those unintended pregnancies ends up in birth.
- We cannot show the exact rate of adoption.
Access to contraceptives and a deep sexual education helps women to have children by choice, not by chance. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that if all women wanted to avoid unplanned pregnancy & visited family planning centers, the unplanned pregnancies would fall by 71% from 75 million to 22 million per year. Reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies also drops rates of abortion.
2) Why does the United States have such high unintended pregnancies rates (52%) compared to other developed nations?
One reason is that many communities believe that teaching about sex, and in particular about contraception encourages teenage students to have sex. The theory is that by not teaching children about contraception, they discourage them from having sex.
This Article is prepared by Cupid Limited
