The Process of Preventing Pregnancy: Women’s Experiences and Emergency Contraception Use
Open Access
- 1 November 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Qualitative Health Research
- Vol. 12 (9), 1235-1247
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732302238247
Abstract
The model of “unintended“ pregnancy has dominated reproductive health research and policy since the early 1970s. The concept reflects the prevailing highly rational model of behavior in public health and the assumption that the only acceptable points of preventing pregnancy are before or during intercourse. This model is simplistic, overly utilitarian, and does not reflect the experiences of the more than 1 million women who use emergency contraception (EC) and have abortions each year in the United States. Based on stories gathered through open-ended interviews of 32 women seeking EC, the authors propose a dynamic process of pregnancy prevention, spanning the act of intercourse and situated in a complex cultural context. Such a model reconceptualizes efforts to control one’s fertility, normalizes the experiences of women who do not fit the existing models, and generates new ideas for supporting women and their male partners in their efforts to control their reproduction.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Emergency contraception: an anomalous position in the family planning repertoire?Social Science & Medicine (1982), 1999
- Intended Pregnancies and Unintended Pregnancies: Distinct Categories or Opposite Ends of a Continuum?Family Planning Perspectives, 1999
- Predicting Maternal Behaviors During Pregnancy: Does Intention Status Matter?Family Planning Perspectives, 1998
- Defining and measuring unintended pregnancy: Issues and concernsWomen's Health Issues, 1997
- Preventing unintended pregnancy: the cost-effectiveness of three methods of emergency contraception.American Journal of Public Health, 1997
- The Theory of Planned Behavior: A Review of its Applications to Health-Related BehaviorsAmerican Journal of Health Promotion, 1996
- Factors Affecting the Consistent Use of Barrier Methods of ContraceptionObstetrics & Gynecology, 1996
- The Prediction of Accurate Contraceptive Use From Attitudes and KnowledgeHealth Education Quarterly, 1996
- The relationship between pregnancy intendedness and physical violence in mothers of newbornsObstetrics & Gynecology, 1995
- Unplanned Pregnancies, Family Planning Problems, and Child MaltreatmentFamily Relations, 1987