Contraceptive Failure and Reproductive Outcomes in India

In contrast to declining trend of the share of traditional methods in developing world, India has witnessed a gradual increase in traditional method use from 4% in 1992-93 to 8% in 2005-06 (shares 44% of spacing method use). The experience of accidental pregnancy among traditional method users is much high (one-fourth experienced failure within a year) than the modern spacing method. In addition, the use and continuity of modern spacing methods remained low and varies across users and methods in the country. A substantial proportion of method failures result into abortion or still birth posing serious consequences to the women.
In this context, this paper measures the level of abortion as a result of method failure among reversible method users and examines the correlates of abortion. Calendar data from the National Family Health Survey-3 (2005-06) were analyzed. Binary logit models were applied to analyze the determinants of fetal loss. The findings suggest that 75% of the pregnancies preceded by a method failure were carried to term and about 54% of them were reported as unintended. Fetal loss was found to be associated with age, early marriage, parity of the woman, fertility intentions, educational attainment, wealth status and duration of use.