The aim of this study was to investigate associations of birth weight with sociodemographic variables, domestic violence, ways of coping, social support, and general mental health of Iranian mothers. Six hundred mothers aged 15 to 29 years participated between June 2009 and November 2010. t-Test, analysis of variance, Spearman's correlation, and multiple regression were used. The results showed that there was no significant association between birth weight and general mental health of the mothers. Prenatal care visits, the mothers' history of having children with low birth weight (LBW), and weight gain during pregnancy were significantly associated with birth weight. The women who reported physical abuse during pregnancy had infants with lower birth weight. Satisfaction with social support and use of positive reappraisal were significantly associated with higher birth weight. In conclusion, a high quality of prenatal care and screening of pregnant women are recommended. Social environments good enough during pregnancy have protective effects against LBW.

The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of domestic violence (DV) in pregnant women and to explore relationships of self-esteem and social support (SS) relating to DV. Six hundred young mothers were investigated. 28.2 % reported that they experienced some type of DV during pregnancy. The occurrence of physical abuse was not related to self-esteem or SS. When verbal violence was reported, satisfaction with SS was lower and self-esteem was lower by trend. Self-esteem was substantially lower when sexual violence was indicated. The number of people available for support did not provide a substantial buffering effect, but the perceived quality of SS did. Higher education in the mother and husband, and women's employment represented protective conditions against the occurrence of DV.Keywords Satisfaction with social support . Number of supporting persons . Young mothers . Pregnancy . High education as protective factorThe World Health Organization (WHO 1997) defined domestic violence (DV) as the "range of sexually, psychologically, and physically coercive acts used against adult and adolescent women by current or former male intimate partners" (p. 5). DV during pregnancy is a global social problem due to its potential to physically and psychologically harm a woman and her foetus (O'Reilly et al. 2010). Research indicates that 4 % to 29 % of women experience DV during pregnancy in developing countries (Fikree and Bhatti 1999;Hegarty and Roberts 1998;Nasir and Hyder 2003). The WHO (2005) reported an incidence of physical abuse in pregnant women higher than 5 % in 11 of 15 countries based on 48 investigations worldwide. Even higher incidence rates, between 13 % (Ethiopia) and almost 50 % (urban Brazil, Serbia, and Montenegro), were reported for first time abuse during pregnancy (O'Reilly et al. 2010; WHO 2005).Iran shares the widespread social problem of high incidence of DV with developed countries (Vameghi et al. 2007). Thirty percent of married women reported at least one act of serious physical violence during their marriage according to a National Survey on DV against Women (NSDV) conducted in 28 provinces of Iran (Ghazi et al. 2004). This is not surprising given that Iran's society is still dominated by traditional values including a patriarchal family structure and the social requirement that women accept and tolerate DV in silence (Kar 2001). However, incidence rates of DV in Iran are likely to be underreported due to expectations that women maintain secrecy about DV.There are a few investigations in Iran about violence toward pregnant women. In a study of 1,800 pregnant women in Tehran (Jahanfar and Malekzadegan 2007), multiple types of DV were experienced by 60.6 % of the women, including psychological (60.5 %), physical (14.6 %), and sexual (23.5 %) violence. The prevalence of DV during pregnancy was 42 % in another investigation in the town of Jahrom in southern Iran (Mohammadhosseini et al. 2010).DV against pregnant women may have immediate, short, and long-term effects on the psychological and physical