Objective (s): Pregnancy is the transition to parenthood. Being mentally prepared is essential for successful psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy. So, an unplanned pregnancy challenges the self-sufficiency and control expected of women. The main focus of this study was to provide a better understanding of women’s coping with an unplanned pregnancy.Methods: The data were collected through 23 semi-structured in depth interviews from May to September 2013 in Tabriz and analyzed using descriptive-interpretive approach of content analysis. The participants were 15 women having a recent unplanned pregnancy, interviewed from the 20th week of gestation until 40 days after childbirth. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was conducted using MAXQDA 2007.Results: Findings fell into four main themes: initial negative reactions, social rejection of abortion, values and religious beliefs and post-continue conflicts indicating negative reactions when facing with an unplanned pregnancy. Although socio-cultural context of Iran helped women to copy with an unplanned pregnancy, post-continue conflicts remained.Conclusion: Unplanned pregnancy for women begins with initial negative reactions and leads to the post-continue conflicts. These findings highlight the importance of promoting primary prevention of unplanned pregnancy and also designing secondary prevention programs to help positive coping with such pregnancies.

Background & aim: Despite the success of family planning programs in Iran in the recent decades, considerable proportions of pregnancies are still unintended and can be a cause of poor mental and physical health of the mother and child. The aim of this study was to investigate some important factors affecting uplanned pregnancies among married women in Semnan province, one of the developed provinces of Iran with below replacement fertility level.Methods: The data for this study were drawn from a cross-sectional survey conducted in Semnan province in 2014. A total of 363 married women within the age range of 15-49 years who were pregnant or had the history of at least one delivery were considered. The study sample was selected using multi-stage stratified sampling method. The data were collected using a self-structured questionnaire with 90 items and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.88. Data analysis was performed in SPSS (version 20) using Crammer’s V coefficients and Chi-square tests. Logistic regression analysis was also applied to model the risk of unintended pregnancies based on selected covariates.Results: According to the results, around 18.2% of the pregnancies were unplanned, 7.7% and 10.5% of which were mistimed and unwanted, respectively. Based on the logistic regression analysis, birth cohort, number of children ever born, and contraceptive methods had significant effects on the risk of unintended pregnancies. Furthermore, about 48% of the women experiencing unintended pregnancy were using a traditional contraceptive method before or at the time of the conception.Conclusion: As the findings indicated, the women who used contraceptive method, as well as those with higher number of children and younger birth cohorts had higher risk of unplanned pregnancies. It should be noted that the majority of unplanned pregnancies among the women in younger birth cohort were mistimed pregnancies. So it is recommended to continue offering family planning and health services to these women in order to prevent unplanned pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and many chronic diseases.

Background and Aim: Postpartum depression is a disabling illness which can influence in the women's social relationship and their ability to achieve the task of neonatal care. Early diagnosis of depression and recognition of its related factors, preventive and therapeutic measures can be considered which can lead to health of mother, neonate, family and society. The aim of this study was to investigate postpartum depression and its relation to unplanned pregnancy and baby gender in the women who had given birth in community oriented medical clinic of Kermanshah University.Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. 531 primiparous women, who had referred to community oriented clinic between 10-40 days after delivery, were included in this study and evaluated for depression. Sampling method was census. Data were collected by use of Edinburgh postnatal Depression scale (EPDS) and an informational form about demographic characteristics, baby gender, planned or unplanned pregnancy and history of depression. SPSS software was used and data were analyzed by means of analytical statistics (chi-square and t-test).Results: 40.7% of the subjects had postpartum depression. Postpartum depression revealed a significant relationship with unplanned pregnancy and the history of depression (p=0.002), but no significant relationship was found between postpartum depression and neonatal gender.Conclusion: Postpartum depression has a high prevalence in our study affecting approximately 50% of mothers. Therefore screening for postpartum depression should be considered mandatory in postpartum care. Also special measures should be considered for women with unplanned pregnancy and history of depression during pregnancy and postnatal period.

Objectives: Attachment to the fetus is formed before the birth and stronger prenatal maternal-fetal attachment is related to more desirable prenatal and postpartum behaviors and cares as well as better acceptance of the parenting role. Therefore, this study aimed to determine maternal-fetal attachment and its socio-demographic determinants among women with an unplanned pregnancy. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted on a convenience sample of 200 women with unplanned pregnancies attending the maternity clinic of Alavi hospital (Ardebil, Iran) during 2016-2017. To collect the data, a socio-demographic questionnaire and the maternal-fetal attachment scale (MFAS) were completed through the interviews. Data were analyzed using independent t tests, one-way ANOVA, and the general linear model. Results: The mean (standard deviation) of maternal-fetal attachment score in women with an unplanned pregnancy was 79. 2 (11. 2) ranging from 23 to 115. The mean attachment score was significantly higher in women with a mistimed pregnancy [83. 5 (9. 0)] than in those with an unwanted pregnancy [72. 9 (11. 0)]. The highest and lowest mean scores were observed in the “ interaction with the fetus” [14. 2 (3. 3)] and the “ role-taking” [9. 2 (3. 0)] sub-domains, respectively. Based on the general linear model, only the type of unplanned pregnancy (mistimed or unwanted) indicated a significant relationship with maternal-fetal attachment (P < 0. 001). Conclusions: Based on the results, the type of unplanned pregnancy had a significant association with maternal-fetal attachment. Moreover, mothers with unwanted pregnancies needed greater counseling and support compared to those with mistimed pregnancies.

Objectives: The present study aimed at comparing the physical health and maternal-fetal attachment in the women with planned and unplanned pregnancies. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-comparative study including 300 pregnant women (165 planned and 135 unplanned pregnancies) with mean age of 29. 8± 5. 8 (age range of 16-50 years old) who had referred to the prenatal clinic of a hospital from September to October, 2016. The maternal– fetal attachment was analyzed using frequency distribution of attachment scores which did not follow the normal distribution of the subscale totally and specifically. Therefore, to compare the scores of the 2 groups, non-parametric tests were used. To calculate the percentage of physical health of the groups, proprietary test was used. Results: Unplanned pregnancy was assumed as a predictor of physical health because it made women susceptible to health complications (poor health) 5. 42 times more than other variables. In 2 groups of the women with planned and unplanned pregnancies, the attachment score was significantly different between the planned and unplanned pregnancy groups. Conclusions: Unplanned pregnancy makes less maternal-fetal attachment and causes insufficient care as well as insufficient nutrition during pregnancy which in turn leads to unhealthy status in mother and child. Hence, to tackle this problem, reproductive health counseling, education, encouragement and problem-solving in various fields including psychological supporObjectives: The present study aimed at comparing the physical health and maternal-fetal attachment in the women with planned and unplanned pregnancies. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-comparative study including 300 pregnant women (165 planned and 135 unplanned pregnancies) with mean age of 29. 8± 5. 8 (age range of 16-50 years old) who had referred to the prenatal clinic of a hospital from September to October, 2016. The maternal– fetal attachment was analyzed using frequency distribution of attachment scores which did not follow the normal distribution of the subscale totally and specifically. Therefore, to compare the scores of the 2 groups, non-parametric tests were used. To calculate the percentage of physical health of the groups, proprietary test was used. Results: Unplanned pregnancy was assumed as a predictor of physical health because it made women susceptible to health complications (poor health) 5. 42 times more than other variables. In 2 groups of the women with planned and unplanned pregnancies, the attachment score was significantly different between the planned and unplanned pregnancy groups. Conclusions: Unplanned pregnancy makes less maternal-fetal attachment and causes insufficient care as well as insufficient nutrition during pregnancy which in turn leads to unhealthy status in mother and child. Hence, to tackle this problem, reproductive health counseling, education, encouragement and problem-solving in various fields including psychological support of mothers in prenatal care and acceptance of parental role are recommended. t of mothers in prenatal care and acceptance of parental role are recommended.