Pathways between pregnancy intention and health outcomes: An exploration of ambivalence and novel categories

What is this study about?

Almost half of all pregnancies in the US are unintended, with implications for reproductive and bodily autonomy and human rights, especially in the current climate of eroding reproductive rights. Incomplete data that treat pregnancy intentions as dichotomous have suggested that unintended pregnancies are associated with numerous health consequences and racial/ethnic disparities and has demonstrated only minimal improvement over the decades. These adverse outcomes and health inequities threaten public health, and the lack of robust measures stymies our ability to address reproductive health via policy and interventions. Existing studies of pregnancy intention and health outcomes have not thoroughly accounted for potential confounding factors or moderators of this relationship, such as socioeconomic status and experience of violence and racism.

This study used an explanatory sequential design and online recruitment to explore pathways between pregnancy intention and health outcomes to establish actionable categories of risk. It was funded by the GMU College of Public Health.

Resulting scholarship:

Grace, K.T., Gupta, J., Fay, K., Altay, T., Kanselaar, S., & Miller, E. (2025).  Pregnancy, birth, and mental health outcomes associated with recent reproductive coercion and intimate partner violence in a crowd-sourced national sample. Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health. http://doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.13758