Factors Associated with Unintended Pregnancy among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic at Kenyatta National Hospital

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors associated with unintended pregnancy among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at Kenyatta National Hospital. Estimates of unintended pregnancy by their intention status give a picture of the reproductive health status of a population. Annually, unintended pregnancy account for 38% of all pregnancies in the world with 22% ending in abortion. In 2018, Kenya’s prevalence of unintended pregnancy among women aged 15-49 years was approximately 42%, mistimed 30.6% and unwanted 11.2%. Unintended pregnancy has adverse outcomes both to the mother and child like unsafe abortion, maternal deaths, malnutrition, mental illness as a result of stress and vertical transmission of HIV. The main objective of this study was to identify factors associated with unintended pregnancy among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at the Kenyatta National Hospital. This was an institution based cross-sectional study design with a sample size of 227 pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi. The data was collected using a structured, pretested and interviewer guided questionnaire. A pregnancy was said to be unintended if it was mistimed or unwanted. Data obtained were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Test of associations were done using chi square test of associations with the level of significance set at p<0.05. In this study, a third (29.9%) of the pregnant women reported that their current pregnancy was unintended. Age less than 25 years [aOR 8.1 (95% CI 1.4-48.6) ), p=0.001], use of contraceptive method [aOR 7.9 (95% CI 2.5-25.0), p<0.001] and the woman being the sole decision-maker on when to get pregnant [aOR 3.8 (95% CI 1.3-11.2), p=0.014] were independent predictors of unintended pregnancy. Designing, implementing, and reinforcing postnatal contraceptive counselling program to all mothers delivering in health facilities was recommended to reduce unintended pregnancy.