Who Are the Women Who Think They Could Have Become Pregnant without Wanting It?

Aline Bohet, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)

The aim of this study is to estimate the proportion of women who perceive themselves as having been at risk of an unwanted pregnancy in the last 4 weeks and identify the correlates of such perceptions. Data are drawn from the Fecond study, a French national survey on sexual and reproductive health conducted by phone in 2010. Bivariate and multivariate statistics were used to describe pregnancy risk perceptions of 2979 women (ages 15-49 years) according to their socio-demographic characteristics and their past and current sexual and reproductive behaviors. A total of 15% of women thought they could have become pregnant unintentionally in the last 4 weeks. Such perceptions were related to women’s financial situation, country of birth, history of unintended pregnancy and STI. Current contraceptive usage and errors of use or unprotected intercourse in the last 4 weeks were the strongest correlates of pregnancy risk perceptions.