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42 | PMA2014 ETHIOPIA DETAILED INDICATOR REPORT
Unintended Births
Pregnancies may occur at a time when women and their partners either did not want (additional)
children or wanted to delay the next birth. This indicator is based on responses to the question, “At
the time you became pregnant, did you want to become pregnant then, did you want to wait until
later, or did you not want to have any/any more children at all” It is measured as the percentage
of women who gave birth in the last five years or who are currently pregnant reporting whether their
most recent or current pregnancy was wanted then, wanted later, or not wanted at all.
Among all women with at least one birth, 58.7% reported that their last or current pregnancy was
intended. Another 25.2% wanted their pregnancy to be timed later, and 16.0% did not want any
additional children. Mistimed pregnancies were higher among women less than 35 years old,
whereas unwanted pregnancies were higher among women age 35 and older. For women from the
poorest households, 44.2% reported their last pregnancy was unintended (mistimed or unwanted),
compared to 37.4% of women from the wealthiest households. The inequity in women’s ability to
have intended pregnancies can be measured by the ratio of these two figures. For all women, the
ratio is 1.18 and for married women it is 1.21; that is, women in the poorest households are about
20% more likely to have unintended pregnancies compared to women in the wealthiest quintile.
Figure F7. Percentage distribution of planned status of most recent or current pregnancy for all
women ages 15 to 49 with one or more births, by wealth quintile
100100
80
80
Percentage of unintended pregnancies
60
60
40
40
20
20
Not at all
0
Lowest Second Middle Fourth Highest
Wealth quintile
Wanted later
Wanted then