What is the contribution of the underuse of modern methods (MM) of contraception to the annual undesired pregnancies in 35 low- and middle-income countries? Fifteen million out of 16.7 million undesired pregnancies occurring annually in 35 countries could have been prevented with the optimal use of MM of contraception. Every year, 87 million women worldwide become pregnant unintentionally because of the underuse of MM of contraception. Demographic and health surveys (DHS) of 35 countries, conducted between 2005 and 2012, were analysed. Contraceptive use of 12 874 unintentionally pregnant women was compared with 111 301 sexually active women who were neither pregnant nor desiring pregnancy. An average of 96% of 15- to 49-year-old eligible women took part in the survey. When adjusted for covariates and compared with the use of MM of contraception, the use of traditional methods was associated with a 2.7 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.3–3.4] times increase in odds of an undesired pregnancy, while non-use of any method was associated with a 14.3 (95% CI, 12.3–16.7) times increase. This corresponded to an estimated 16.7 million undesired pregnancies occurring annually in the 35 countries, of which 15.0 million could have been prevented with the optimal use of MM of contraception (13.5 million women did not use MM whilst 1.5 million women utilized MM incorrectly). Women with the lowest educational attainment and wealth quintile were 8.6 (95% CI: 8.2–9.1) and 2.6 (95% CI: 2.4–2.9) times less likely to use contraceptives compared with those with the highest level of each, respectively. Of the 14 893 women who neither desired pregnancy nor used contraception, 5559 (37.3%) cited fear of side effects and health concerns as the reason for non-use, 3331 (22.4%) cited they or their partner's opposition to contraception or religious prohibition and 2620 (17.6%) underestimated the risk of pregnancy. Despite the fact that DHS are considered high-quality studies, we should not underestimate the role played by recall bias for past pregnancies. Few women report a current pregnancy in the first trimester and undesired pregnancies at that time are probably prone to under-reporting. Some terminated pregnancies may not be included in the current pregnancy group. Furthermore, covariates measured at the time of the survey may not have reflected the same covariates at the time the currently pregnant women became pregnant. Underuse of MM of contraception burdens especially the poor and the less educated. National strategies should address unfounded health concerns, fear of side effects, opposition and underestimated risk of pregnancy, which are major contributors to undesired pregnancies. No external funding was utilized for this report. There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

We conducted an analysis based on publicly available data sets from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) [14]. We included data from 60 countries which represented the latest country DHS over the last 15 years with available data on mortality and caesarean sections in single and multiple pregnancies ( Table 1 ).

Annually, around 7.9 million children are born with birth defects and the contribution of congenital malformations to neonatal mortality is generally high. Congenital malformations in children born to mothers with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy has marginally been explored. Country incidence of congenital malformations was estimated using data on the 310 401 livebirths of the WHO Multicountry Survey which reported information from 359 facilities across 29 countries. A random-effect logistic regression model was utilized to explore the associations between six broad categories of congenital malformations and the four maternal hypertensive disorders “Chronic Hypertension”, “Preeclampsia” and “Eclampsia” and “Chronic hypertension with superimposed preeclampsia”. The occupied territories of Palestine presented the highest rates in all groups of malformation except for the “Lip/Cleft/Palate” category. Newborns of women with chronic maternal hypertension were associated with a 3.7 (95 % CI 1.3–10.7), 3.9 (95 % CI 1.7–9.0) and 4.2 (95 % CI 1.5–11.6) times increase in odds of renal, limb and lip/cleft/palate malformations respectively. Chronic hypertension with superimposed preeclampsia was associated with a 4.3 (95 % CI 1.3–14.4), 8.7 (95 % CI 2.5–30.2), 7.1 (95 % CI 2.1–23.5) and 8.2 (95 % CI 2.0–34.3) times increase in odds of neural tube/central nervous system, renal, limb and Lip/Cleft/Palate malformations. This study shows that chronic hypertension in the maternal period exposes newborns to a significant risk of developing renal, limb and lip/cleft/palate congenital malformations, and the risk is further exacerbate by superimposing eclampsia. Additional research is needed to identify shared pathways of maternal hypertensive disorders and congenital malformations.

In spite of the last decade increase in availability of contraception, around half of the annual 21 million pregnancies notified in low- and middle-income countries in individuals aged 15-19 years are unintended. We sought to explore the contribution of the underuse of modern methods of contraception (MMC) to the annual incidence of unintended pregnancies among adolescent women. We used Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 12 low- and middle-income countries. The pooled analysis exploring the risk of unintended pregnancy included 7268 adolescent women with a current unintended pregnancy and 121 894 currently not pregnant 15- to 19-year-old sexually active women who did not desire pregnancy. For each country and the pooled analysis, the odds ratio of unintended pregnancy was calculated in relation to the type of contraception (MMC, Traditional Methods, and No Contraception). Expected unintended pregnancies and population attributable fraction (PAF) of unintended pregnancies attributable to not using MMC were calculated for each country. The use of traditional methods was associated with a 3.4 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.1-4.7) time increased odds of having an undesired pregnancy compared with the use of MMC of contraception while not using any method of contraception was associated with a 4.6 (95% CI = 2.6-6.6) times increased odds. The population attributable fraction (PAF) of not using MMC accounted for 86.8% of the estimated unintended pregnancies (9 464 654 in total in the 12 countries) in the pooled analysis. PAF ranged from 65.8% (1 022 154) for Bangladesh to 95.1% (540 176) for Niger and the estimated number of unintended pregnancies because of the use of traditional methods or non-use of contraception ranged from 18 638 in Namibia to 4 303 872 in India. Eight million out of 9.5 million unintended pregnancies occurring annually in twelve countries could have been prevented with the optimal use of MMC of contraception. MMC need to be further supported in order to further prevent unintended pregnancies globally.

Background: Equity is a guiding principle of the Global Strategy for Women, Children and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030) aimed at improving adolescent health and responding more effectively to adolescents’ needs. We investigated the socioeconomic differentials in having multiple sexual partners and condom use among unmarried adolescents who reported ever having had sex aged 15–19 years in 14 sub-Saharan countries. Methods: Using the most recent publicly available Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2011 and 2018, we calculated survey- and sex-specific proportions of two or more partners and condomless sex, both overall and by selected socioeconomic characteristics and we fitted logistic regression models to estimate the survey- and sex-specific adjusted odds ratios. The pooled adjusted odds ratios were estimated using multilevel logistic regression. Results: In most countries, higher percentages of male adolescents than female adolescents reported having more than one partner in the last 12 months. Conversely, a lower percentage of young male reported having condomless sex when compared to young female: from 19.8% in Gabon to 84.5% in Sierra Leone among male adolescents and from 32.6% in Gabon to 93.2% in Sierra Leone among female adolescents. In the multilevel analyses, condomless sex was associated with place of residence, wealth and schooling for both female and male adolescents, while among male adolescents multiple partnerships was significantly associated with place of residence. Conclusion: Our findings on disparities in condomless sex associated with socioeconomic characteristics might reflect constraint choice and decision making. Results also suggest the need for educational programming and services and better access to barrier methods.