Descriptive qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 women who had given birth in the previous 5 years to identify factors that influenced their desire to become pregnant. All interviews were audiotaped. Following the interviews, the texts were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Giorgi’s method. Five themes emerged from the interviews: (1) timing; (2) spacing;
meeting personal criteria; (4) desire for the experience of pregnancy, birth, and parenting; and (5) extended family in close proximity. The study’s findings offer an initial step in understanding the attitudes, motivations, and beliefs of healthy childbearing women and their desire for pregnancy. Increased understanding may help health-care providers develop interventions that not only assist women to conceive as desired but also prevent unplanned pregnancies.Keywords: planned pregnancy, qualitative research, pregnancy desire
In the United States, approximately half of all pregnancies each year are planned. Unplanned pregnancies include both mistimed and unwanted pregnancies (Ventura, Mosher, Curtin, Abma, & Henshaw, 2000). Mistimed pregnancies are pregnancies that may be wanted at another time, but the timing is not right for the present. Unwanted pregnancies are defined as not wanted now or at any future time. Unplanned pregnancies are more likely than planned pregnancies to result in low birth weight, prematurity, and transmission of diseases (D’Angelo, Gilbert, Rochat, Santelli, & Herold, 2004; Forsyth et al., 2002; Kirshenbaum et al., 2004; Petersen, Gazmararian, Clark, & Green, 2001; Pulley, Klerman, Tang, & Baker, 2002).
Numerous studies have examined factors affecting unplanned pregnancies and on adolescent pregnancies, but few researchers have asked women with a planned pregnancy what made it the right time to become pregnant. Thus, the typical, healthy woman’s perceptions of when to conceive are not known.
The process of planning for a pregnancy is complex, with many influencing factors. Factors that are considered important include family and medical history and current lifestyle behaviors (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2000
