Relationships Between the Intendedness of Conception and the Wantedness of Pregnancy

In this investigation, the relationship between the intendedness of conception and the wantedness of pregnancy was explored in a population of 221 predominantly white, middle-class women who reported on 379 conception-pregnancies. It was observed that virtually all consciously intended conceptions led to fully wanted pregnancies, but that conceptions resulting from inadequate contraception or from contraceptive accidents fell evenly across the full range of wantedness. It was shown that the study population had a “wantedness reserve,” in that 15 percent of the conceptions were subintended (i.e., were less than fully intended), yet led to fully wanted pregnancies. The absolute levels of intendedness and wantedness and the wantedness reserve varied during the different sexual-procreational phases of the study population's life cycle. These variations confirmed the existence of four previously hypothesized points in the life cycle during which women are especially vulnerable to the occurrence of an unwanted pregnancy. Also, the variations in the wantedness reserve showed some independence from the measures of intendedness and wantedness, supporting the proposition that the wantedness reserve is a fertility measure which deserves separate consideration.