Skip to main content
NCBI home page
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal logoLink to CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal
. 1999 Apr 6;160(7):1007–1011.

Physical abuse during pregnancy: prevalence and risk factors

N Muhajarine 1, C D'Arcy 1
PMCID: PMC1230192  PMID: 10207339

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Violence during pregnancy is a health and social problem that poses particular risks to the woman and her fetus. To address the lack of Canadian information on this issue, the authors studied the prevalence and predictors of physical abuse in a sample of pregnant women in Saskatoon. METHODS: Of 728 women receiving prenatal services through the Saskatoon District public health system between Apr. 1, 1993, and Mar. 31, 1994, 605 gave informed consent to participate in the study and were interviewed in the second trimester. Of these, 543 were interviewed again late in the third trimester. During the initial interview, information was collected on the women's sociodemographic characteristics, the current pregnancy, health practices and psychosocial variables. The second interview focused on the women's experience of physical abuse during the pregnancy and during the preceding year, the demographic characteristics and the use of alcohol or illicit drugs by their male partner. RESULTS: In all, 31 (5.7%) of the women reported experiencing physical abuse during pregnancy; 46 (8.5%) reported experiencing it within the 12 months preceding the second interview. Of the 31 women 20 (63.3%) reported that the perpetrator was her husband, boyfriend or ex-husband. Although all ethnic groups of women suffered abuse, aboriginal women were at greater risk than nonaboriginal women (adjusted odds ratio 2.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0-7.8). Women whose partner had a drinking problem were 3.4 times (95% CI 1.2-9.9) more likely to have been abused than women whose partner did not have a drinking problem. Perceived stress and number of negative life events in the preceding year were also predictors of abuse. Abused women tended to report having fewer people with whom they could talk about personal issues or get together; however, they reported socializing with a larger number of people in the month before the second interview than did the women who were not abused. INTERPRETATION: Physical abuse affects a significant minority of pregnant women and is associated with stress, lack of perceived support and a partner with a drinking problem.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (111.6 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Amaro H., Fried L. E., Cabral H., Zuckerman B. Violence during pregnancy and substance use. Am J Public Health. 1990 May;80(5):575–579. doi: 10.2105/ajph.80.5.575. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berkowitz G. S., Kasl S. V. The role of psychosocial factors in spontaneous preterm delivery. J Psychosom Res. 1983;27(4):283–290. doi: 10.1016/0022-3999(83)90050-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bullock L. F., McFarlane J. The birth-weight/battering connection. Am J Nurs. 1989 Sep;89(9):1153–1155. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bullock L., McFarlane J., Bateman L. H., Miller V. The prevalence and characteristics of battered women in a primary care setting. Nurse Pract. 1989 Jun;14(6):47, 50, 53-6. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Campbell J. C., Poland M. L., Waller J. B., Ager J. Correlates of battering during pregnancy. Res Nurs Health. 1992 Jun;15(3):219–226. doi: 10.1002/nur.4770150308. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cohen S., Kamarck T., Mermelstein R. A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav. 1983 Dec;24(4):385–396. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Derogatis L. R., Melisaratos N. The Brief Symptom Inventory: an introductory report. Psychol Med. 1983 Aug;13(3):595–605. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ferris L. E., Tudiver F. Family physicians' approach to wife abuse: a study of Ontario, Canada, practices. Fam Med. 1992 May-Jun;24(4):276–282. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Gazmararian J. A., Lazorick S., Spitz A. M., Ballard T. J., Saltzman L. E., Marks J. S. Prevalence of violence against pregnant women. JAMA. 1996 Jun 26;275(24):1915–1920. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Gielen A. C., O'Campo P. J., Faden R. R., Kass N. E., Xue X. Interpersonal conflict and physical violence during the childbearing year. Soc Sci Med. 1994 Sep;39(6):781–787. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(94)90039-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Helton A. S., McFarlane J., Anderson E. T. Battered and pregnant: a prevalence study. Am J Public Health. 1987 Oct;77(10):1337–1339. doi: 10.2105/ajph.77.10.1337. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hillard P. J. Physical abuse in pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol. 1985 Aug;66(2):185–190. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hotaling G. T., Sugarman D. B. An analysis of risk markers in husband to wife violence: the current state of knowledge. Violence Vict. 1986 Summer;1(2):101–124. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Hotch D., Grunfeld A. F., Mackay K., Cowan L. An emergency department-based domestic violence intervention program: findings after one year. J Emerg Med. 1996 Jan-Feb;14(1):111–117. doi: 10.1016/0736-4679(95)02051-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. McFarlane J., Christoffel K., Bateman L., Miller V., Bullock L. Assessing for abuse: self-report versus nurse interview. Public Health Nurs. 1991 Dec;8(4):245–250. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1446.1991.tb00664.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. McFarlane J., Parker B., Soeken K., Bullock L. Assessing for abuse during pregnancy. Severity and frequency of injuries and associated entry into prenatal care. JAMA. 1992 Jun 17;267(23):3176–3178. doi: 10.1001/jama.267.23.3176. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Muhajarine N., D'Arcy C., Edouard L. Prevalence and predictors of health risk behaviours during early pregnancy: Saskatoon Pregnancy and Health Study. Can J Public Health. 1997 Nov-Dec;88(6):375–379. doi: 10.1007/BF03403909. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Newton R. W., Hunt L. P. Psychosocial stress in pregnancy and its relation to low birth weight. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1984 Apr 21;288(6425):1191–1194. doi: 10.1136/bmj.288.6425.1191. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Pearlin L. I., Schooler C. The structure of coping. J Health Soc Behav. 1978 Mar;19(1):2–21. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Pearlman M. D., Tintinalli J. E., Lorenz R. P. Blunt trauma during pregnancy. N Engl J Med. 1990 Dec 6;323(23):1609–1613. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199012063232307. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Sammons L. N. Battered and pregnant. MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs. 1981 Jul-Aug;6(4):246–250. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Stewart D. E., Cecutti A. Physical abuse in pregnancy. CMAJ. 1993 Nov 1;149(9):1257–1263. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal are provided here courtesy of Canadian Medical Association

RESOURCES