LAUSR

BACKGROUND Researchers have questioned the accuracy of retrospective measures of unintended pregnancy, which ask women whether they wanted a pregnancy before it was conceived. OBJECTIVE We investigated whether pregnant women’s retrospective recollections of their preconception desires for pregnancy were shaped by intimate relationships, their own reactions, and their perceptions of their partners’ reactions to their pregnancies. METHODS We used the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study, which included weekly survey interviews with 971 young women, of whom 175 experienced 203 pregnancies during the 2.5-year study period. We estimated logistic regression models of whether women’s retrospective recollections of their pre-conception desires were stable, shifted positive, or shifted negative compared to their prospectively reported desires, along with formal mediation tests of potential mechanisms. RESULTS Women were more likely to remember their undesired pregnancies as desired before conception if they themselves reacted happily to the pregnancy, they were married or engaged, or they perceived their partner as reacting positively. The association with perceiving her partner as positive was mediated by her own happiness about the pregnancy.