SUBSEQUENT PREGNANCIES - WHO HAS THEM AND WHO WANTS THEM - OBSERVATIONS FROM AN URBAN CENTER IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL

Subsequent pregnancies in mothers of a birth cohort from Pelotas, Southern Brazil, were studied in relation to maternal and socio-economic factors. Within about 3 1/2 years of the cohort child's birth, 39% of mothers had experienced at least one further pregnancy. This proportion decreased with increasing maternal age, years of schooling and family income. A U-shaped trend was observed with respect to parity. Mothers who had delivered the cohort child by caesarean section were also less likely to have another pregnancy within that time. Logistic regression analysis showed that each of these factors remained significantly associated with further pregnancies after controlling for the remaining variables. Analysis of the first subsequent pregnancy showed that a high proportion of mothers had not wanted the pregnancy. Unwanted pregnancies were also significantly associated with older women, low educational status, higher parity and low family income.; Researchers followed 5914 children born in 1982 in Pelotas, an urban center in southern Brazil, and interviewed the mothers about subsequent pregnancies between 35-52 months of the cohort child's age to gather data on these pregnancies. 39% of the mothers had at least 1 pregnancy after the cohort child. 78% of them had =or+ 1 child while the remainder had at least 1 abortion. Additional pregnancies occurred more often among lower income women (p.001). In addition, as age and years of schooling rose, the number of subsequent pregnancies fell (p =or- .001). If the cohort child was the 3rd child, the mother was less likely to have a subsequent pregnancy, but the odds ratio fell up to the 3rd child then increased (p.001). This U shaped trend was especially pronounced after adjusting for other factors. A possible explanation for this trend could be due to desired family size and access to sterilization. Other than women who had undergone sterilization, women who delivered their cohort child by cesarean section were least likely to have a subsequent birth, even after adjusting age, income, parity, and education (p.001). This may be due to fear of surgery or these women followed medical advice. The percentage of women who did not want the subsequent pregnancy fell as income, education, and age climbed (p.001). Moreover it increased with parity, especially among richer women. In fact, women of high parity and high income were more likely to have experienced an unwanted subsequent pregnancy than those of high parity and moderate and low income (p.01).