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Objectives: To understand how having or being denied an abortion affects the likelihood of trying to become pregnant, overall pregnancy rates, and the rate and timing of an intended pregnancy in the future.Study Design: The Turnaway Study is a prospective cohort study of women who received or were denied a wanted abortion. Women were recruited from one of 30 US abortion facilities. We examined subsequent intended pregnancy among those who presented just under the facility's gestational limit and received an abortion (Near-Limit Abortion Group, n=413) and those who presented for abortion just beyond the facility's gestational limit, were denied an abortion and went on to parent the child (Parenting Turnaways, n=146). First, we modeled the probability of trying to become pregnant using multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression. We then used Cox proportional-hazards models to compare overall pregnancy rates and intended pregnancy rates over 5 years.Results: Parenting Turnaways had lower predicted probabilities of reporting trying to become pregnant in the first 1.5 years after birth/abortion than the Near-Limit Abortion Group. They also had lower pregnancy rates overall [40.4 per 100 woman-years vs. 53.5 per 100 woman-years, adjusted hazards ratio (aHR)=0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.54-0.89]. The 5-year intended pregnancy rate was low among both groups, but compared to the Near-Limit Abortion Group, Parenting Turnaways had a lower intended pregnancy rate (2.2 per 100 woman-years vs. 7.5 per 100 woman-years, aHR=0.29, 95% CI: 0.10-0.85).Conclusion: Being able to obtain a wanted abortion may enable women to have an intended pregnancy later.Implications: Ensuring that women can obtain an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy may enable them to have a subsequent pregnancy when they are ready to have a baby. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores socioeconomic differences in the effect of family allowances on fertility. Although several studies have examined the relationship between cash benefits and fertility, few studies have addressed the possible differential effects of cash benefits on families of different income or education levels. I reconstructed the birth histories of women in the past two Israeli censuses of 1983 and 1995 to study socioeconomic differences in the effect of family allowances up to the seventh parity. The results indicate that family allowances have a significant effect at every parity. Using female education as an indicator of socioeconomic status, I find that socioeconomic status is a significant modifier of the effect of family allowances. Family allowances seem to have a relatively large impact on more-educated women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Censuses and surveys frequently collect information on period fertility through questions on the timing of last births. The standard approach to estimating fertility with open-interval data uses the proportion of women giving birth in the year before the interview. I propose a more efficient, maximum likelihood method for estimating fertility from open-interval data. I illustrate a mathematical derivation of the new method, perform sensitivity analyses, and conduct empirical tests with Brazilian census data. The new estimators have small biases and lower variance than standard estimators for open-interval data. Consequently, the new method is more likely to generate accurate results from small or moderately sized samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective fecundability declines with age and parity. Furthermore, women differ in their effective fecundability: some women have persistently low or high monthly chances of live-birth conception. Estimates are presented concerning the magnitude of these effects in a natural-fertility population: 406 Hutterite women in North America who had 3,206 births, largely in the 1940s and 1950s. The estimates are based on models that incorporate the effects of persistent heterogeneity and that use the full information provided by multiple-spell duration data. In addition, hazards rather than probabilities are modeled, piecewise linear hazard functions are used, and age and parity effects are decomposed systematically. These methods permit the development of more elaborate models of changing fecundability and of heterogeneity in postpartum amenorrhea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some main results of an investigation by life table methods of birth interval data in cohabitational unions (marriages as well as consensual unions) in current Danish cohorts. Our results confirm previous findings that an early age at the start of recorded exposure to childbearing risk is indicative of a rapid pace and high level of subsequent fertility. The analysis modifies previous results and adds several new details regarding cohort trends and the effect of parity at the start of reported cohabitation. For each parity within a period of cohabitation, fertility differentials by reported starting age seem to have diminished from our older cohorts (of age up to 49 years in 1975) to our younger ones (of age less than 30 years in 1975). There are indications of a dramatic change in childbearing behaviour following the arrival of novel attitudes to non-marital cohabitation and childbearing in Denmark about 1967. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from the 1965 and 1970 National Fertility Studies are used to produce classifications of births and exposure to births by planning status for real and synthetic marriage cohorts, covering the experience of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Indices of reproductive input (three ends, three means, and three conditions) and of conventional reproductive output (such as the mean number of unintended births) are derived from these observations. The outputs are expressed as deterministic equations in terms of the inputs; this permits the study of the structure of fertility determination. The model provides a parsimonious description of the sources of change in fertility and an instrument of possible use in policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An improved survival and quality of life for neonatal survivors after fetoscopic laser therapy for twin-twin transfusion syndrome has been reported. However, little is known about the medium-term maternal effects after fetoscopic laser therapy with respect to reproductive and gynecologic outcomes.Objective: The objective of this study was to document reproductive, obstetric, gynecological, and psychological outcomes in women who underwent fetoscopic laser therapy for twin-twin transfusion syndrome.Study Design: This was a monocentric controlled study on consecutive women who underwent fetoscopic laser therapy for twin-twin transfusion syndrome between 2007 and 2013 at the University Hospitals Leuven (cases; n = 198). Controls were women followed up during the same time period for an uncomplicated monochorionic diamniotic twin pregnancy and with an uneventful course (controls; n = 211). All patients received a questionnaire inquiring on their fertility, later pregnancies, and gynecological outcomes.Results: The response rate was 50.4% (cases: n = 95; controls: n = 109). Most baseline characteristics were similar across both groups. Women in the fetoscopic laser therapy group attempted a new pregnancy more frequently (34% [31 of 92] vs 21% [22 of 107] in controls; P < .05) and became pregnant more often (100% [31 of 31] vs 82% [18 of 22]; P < .05).We observed a shorter interpregnancy interval in cases than controls (median interval, 12 [interquartile range, 5-27] vs 24 [interquartile range, 15-30] months) (P < .05). This was also observed in cases who lost one or both fetuses or babies in the index pregnancy (median interval, 9 [interquartile range, 3.5-25.5] months; P < .05). The complication rate during subsequent pregnancies (26% [8 of 31] vs 11% [2 of 19]; P = .194) and at delivery (17% [5 of 30] vs 11% [2 of 19]; P = .554) were comparable. More women who underwent fetoscopic laser coagulation reported relevant psychological symptoms (44% [40 of 92] vs 21% [23 of 107]; P < .05). When only women in whom there was a double-surviving twin pair were considered, there were no differences in psychological symptoms compared with controls (16% [15 of 55] vs 21% [23 of 107]; P = .411). Gynecological problems were equally frequent in both groups (20% [18 of 92] vs 31% [33 of 107]; P = .069).Conclusion: No adverse medium-term maternal effects with respect to fertility, obstetric, and gynecological outcomes were observed after fetoscopic laser therapy. However, these women reported more psychological or emotional problems than women with monochorionic diamniotic who did not have laser therapy, in particular when this was complicated by a fetal loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]