The Impact of Reproductive Coercion on Reproductive Health and Outcomes among Women in Low and Middle-Income Countries: A Qualitative Evidence Synthesis

Background: Reproductive coercion is behaviour that another person or the partner purposefully restricts women’s reproductive choices.

Objective: The objective of the synthesis is to synthesize qualitative evidences regarding impact of reproductive coercion on reproductive health and outcome among reproductive age women in low and middle income countries.

Materials and methods: Data bases like PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Web of Science and Embase for published researches and openGrey and Google Scholar were searched for gray literatures.

Selection criteria: Primary human studies, English language, low and middle income countries.

Data collection and analysis: Data were extracted from the involved studies using critical appraisal skills program. Thomas and Harden’s thematic analysis approach was used to analyse and synthesize the evidence and the GRADE-CERQual approach was used to assess confidence in review findings. Report of the synthesis was based on the cochrane effective practice and organization of care template.

Results: All the 16 articles that were included were from low and middle income countries. Majority of the studies were pure qualitative except few studies that were mixed studies with clear qualitative parts. Reproductive coercion manifested as pregnancy promotion, contraceptive sabotage, deceptions and forced sex. Reproductive coercion happened to women resulted to unintended pregnancy, forced abortion, low birth weight.

Conclusion: Reproductive coercion is an emerging public health issue that was closely related to intimate partner violence but recently identified as an independent phenomenon. The common types of reproductive coercion identified included contraceptive sabotage, pregnancy promotion and forced sex. Unintended pregnancy and forced termination of pregnancy were the reproductive outcome commonly happening to the women because of reproductive coercions.