Planned and unplanned pregnancy and its association with coping styles and life quality

Abstract

We aimed to compare women who have a planned pregnancy with women who have an unwanted pregnancy, in terms of quality of life, coping attitudes, and demographics. 172 pregnant women were enrolled, of whom 128 of them had planned pregnancy, and 44 of them had not. A survey of socio-demographics, COPE inventory, and SF-36 tools are used to investigate and compare coping attitudes and quality of life. The chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables between groups. The overall quality of life was found to be similar between the two groups. Problem-focused coping attitudes of expectant mothers and dysfunctional coping behaviors were more common among mothers with planned pregnancies (p = 0.047 and p = 0.036, respectively). The planning status of the pregnancy doesn’t seem to be affecting the expectant mothers’ quality of life substantially. On the other hand, unplanned pregnancies appear to be associated with some coping behaviors, as well as low-income level, exposure to violence and not having social support. This outcome may be helpful for pre-conceptional consultations, especially for pregnant with a lack of coping attitudes.

Disclosure statement

All the authors declare no conflict of interest.