Planned and unplanned pregnancies in Hungary

Ferenc Kamarás, Hungarian Central Statistical Office

In Hungary despite the spreading and use of modern contraceptives the ratio of pregnancies ending with abortion is high. How conscious is family planning and childbirth among the married females. What happens if due to the wrong timing, maybe even at the use of contraception the conception occurs earlier than it was planned by the couples and what will be the fate of the non-desired pregnancies? This paper wants to answer these questions on basis of a longitudinal marriage sample survey representative for the country as a whole. The whole marriage history of more than 3500 females was processed in a way that in each case the intention of planning (whether it was a desired pregnancy, a pregnancy desired later or a non-desired pregnancy), the outcome of pregnancy and the contraception practice preceding directly the pregnancy were known. In this way the fate of more than 10 000 pregnancies was analysed.