Unmet Need for Prevention of Unwanted Pregnancy in Shiraz

Background: prevention of unwanted pregnancy is a key strategyto improve the women’s health through spacing of birth and avoidingpregnancy at high-risk maternal ages. unmet need by definitionis the percentage of fecund married women who are not usingcontraceptives while they do not want to get pregnant. they dothis due to unavailable quality services, limited choice of methods,lack of information, safety concerns or side-effects and partnerdisapproval. the present study aimed to assess the magnitude ofunmet need for prevention of unwanted pregnancy in shiraz.methods: in this descriptive cross-sectional study, 2000married women of childbearing age (10-49 years) were selectedrandomly in a survey in shiraz. data collection was done usinga researcher-made questionnaire and the results were reportedusing descriptive statistical methods.results: in the present study, 85.6% of the women used acontraceptive method. 58.7% of them used modern methods ofcontraception. reported reasons for not using contraceptivesincluded recent delivery (25%), intention to have more children(20.6%), lack of awareness about contraceptive methods orwhere such services were offered (6.3%) and irregular sexualintercourse with husband (4.5%). interrupted intercourse rankedthe highest among the methods used. finally, the unmet need forprevention of unwanted pregnancy in this study was reported tobe 4.3 percent.conclusion: women in shiraz had a relatively lower level ofunmet need. counseling is recommended for higher risk womenwith unmet need in order to keep the descending trend of unmetneed for prevention of unwanted pregnancy in shiraz.