"I Did Not Plan … that is What Hurts": Pregnancy Intentions and Contraceptive Use Among Pregnant Young Women in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Sponsor
This project was funded by the Mark and Lisa Schwartz Family Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health (R03 MH093237). Dr. Psaros’ time was also supported by the National Institutes of Health (K23 MH096651). Additional author time was supported by NIH under K23 MH095655 (Matthews), K24 DA040489 (Safren), and K24 MH087227 (Bangsberg), and R24 HD077976 (Harrison).
Published In
African Journal of AIDS Research : AJAR
Document Type
Citation
Publication Date
5-18-2021
Abstract
Unintended pregnancy impacts many young women in South Africa, and rates of consistent contraceptive use among this population are suboptimal. Limited empirical work has investigated reasons for inconsistency between pregnancy intention and contraceptive use behaviour with data collected during pregnancy. We explored pregnancy intentions and discordance between intentions and contraceptive use prior to conception among young pregnant women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 35 women during pregnancy (mean age = 19.3; range = 18-21) in 2011 and 2012. Data were analysed using content analysis. All participants reported unintended pregnancies; almost half were not using contraception near conception. Reasons for not intending to become pregnant spanned personal, social, health, and economic domains. Participants living with HIV ( 13) expressed specific concerns related to impacts of pregnancy on HIV disease management and fear of transmission of HIV to the infant. Discordance between pregnancy intentions and contraceptive use prior to conception was attributed to personal, social, health and structural domains.
Findings indicate a need for interventions that address barriers to contraceptive use in order to minimise unintended pregnancy and support safe, desired pregnancies among young women.
Rights
Copyright © NISC (Pty) Ltd
Locate the Document
DOI
10.2989/16085906.2021.1914693
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35647
Citation Details
Coleman, J. N., Milford, C., Mosery, N., Choi, K. W., Greener, L. R., Matthews, L. T., Harrison, A., Bangsberg, D. R., Safren, S. A., Smit, J. A., & Psaros, C. (2021). “I did not plan … that is what hurts”: Pregnancy intentions and contraceptive use among pregnant young women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. African Journal of AIDS Research, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.2989/16085906.2021.1914693