UNINTENDED PREGNANCY AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDINGANTENATAL CARE AT MATTU TOWN PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES, SOUTH WEST ETHIOPIA.

Background: According to the world health organization, unintended pregnancy is defined as a pregnancy which is not wanted and/or not planed at the time of conception. Unintended pregnancy happens due to different reasons like; not using family planning, failure of contraceptive methods, lack of contraceptive methods, incidental sexual intercourse, including rape, and lack of awareness regarding family planning. Objective-To assess the magnitude of unintended pregnancy and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care at Public Health Facilities in Mattu Town, southwest, Ethiopia, 2024 GC. Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 327 randomly selected mothers attending ANC at public health facilities of Mattu town Ilu Abba Boor Zone Oromia, Ethiopia, from September 18 to November 18, 2024. A total of 327 pregnant women was selected by using systematic random sampling from 3 public health facilities of mattu town Data was collected by structured questionnaire and entered into Epi-Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Data was collected by trained data collectors using Pre-tested structured questionnaires, and also was checked for completeness, consistency, coded and entered in to SPSS version 25 software and analyzed. Results: Magnitude of unintended pregnancy was 33.1%. Parity ≥ 5 [AOR=0.8 95% CI (0.87,1.41)], lack of spousal communication [(AOR=4.8; 95% CI: (1.5-5.2)], Know about IUCD [(AOR: 1.65, 95% CI: (1.2-3.75)], awareness that unintended pregnancy is preventable [AOR=1.9; 95% CI: (0.38-2.6)], history of past unintended pregnancy [AOR=1.4, 95% CI: (0.1-2.9)], distance between health facility and home[AOR=3.34, 95% CI: (0.10,4.4)], and decision to obtain health care [AOR=1.83: 95% CI: (0.56-4.2)] showed significant association with unintended pregnancy. Conclusion and recommendation: Parity, lack of spousal communication, distance between health facility and home, know about IUCD, awareness that unintended pregnancy is preventable, history of past unintended pregnancy, and decision to obtain health care showed significant association with unintended pregnancy. Health bureau and health worker should work to scale up communication of couples about fertility and contraceptive issues through peer education and promoting long‐term modern family planning methods.