Incidence and risk factors for intimate partner violence during the postpartum period

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence and identify risk factors for intimate partner violence during postpartum.METHODS This prospective cohort study was conducted with women, aged between 18-49 years, enrolled in the Brazilian Family Health Strategy in Recife, Northeastern Brazil, between 2005 and 2006. Of the 1.057 women interviewed during pregnancy and postpartum, 539 women, who did not report violence before or during pregnancy, were evaluated. A theoretical-conceptual framework was built with three levels of factors hierarchically ordered: women’s and partners’ sociodemografic and behavioral characteristics, and relationship dynamics. Incidence and risk factors of intimate partner violence were estimated by Poisson Regression.RESULTS The incidence of violence during postpartum was 9.3% (95%CI 7.0;12.0). Isolated psychological violence was the most common (4.3%; 95%CI 2.8;6.4). The overlapping of psychological with physical violence occurred at 3.3% (95%CI 2.0;5.3) and with physical and/or sexual in almost 2.0% (95%CI 0.8;3.0) of cases. The risk of partner violence during postpartum was increased for women with a low level of education (RR = 2.6; 95%CI 1.3;5.4), without own income (RR = 1.7; 95%CI 1.0;2.9) and those who perpetrated physical violence against their partner without being assaulted first (RR = 2.0; 95%CI 1.2;3.4), had a very controlling partner (RR = 2.5; 95%CI 1.1;5.8), and had frequent fights with their partner (RR = 1.7; 95%CI 1.0;2.9).CONCLUSIONS The high incidence of intimate partner violence during postpartum and its association with aspects of the relationship’s quality between the couple, demonstrated the need for public policies that promote conflict mediation and enable forms of empowerment for women to address the cycle of violence.

Prevalência de violência física entre parceiros íntimos nos primeiros seis meses após o parto no Município do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

“…Consistent with the literature 6,31,32,33,41 , although physical intimate partner violence occurred in all the population subgroups, unemployed or underemployed black teenage mothers not living with the partner, with less schooling, and living in households with more than one child under 5 years of age showed higher prevalence of this form of violence. The results indicate that characteristics related to maternal and child health and care may also be associated with higher rates of physical abuse.…”

Intimate Partner Violence and Failure to Thrive in Children Less than Two Years of Age

“…Thirty-five percent of women were abused during pregnancy and this increased by about 9% in the postpartum period. This, too, is in line with a previous study that suggested that abuse may increase in the postpartum period, especially the first 3 months (Silva, Valongueiro, de Araujo, & Ludermir, 2015). It is difficult to interpret this increase in depression in this sample, however, as the researchers used different measures to assess abuse in the prenatal period [the AAS [ vs the postnatal period [the SVAWS].…”

Intimate partner violence among postpartum women: associated factors

“…The findings about the postpartum period show that abuse continues after pregnancy, with the frequency ranging from 8.3% in China (7) to 24.2% in Sweden (8) . In Brazil, a recent prospective cohort study showed a prevalence of 9.3% in the Northeast region and 25.6% (9) in São Paulo (6) . In both periods and in all the studies, the most frequent violence category was the psychological one, followed by physical and sexual (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9) .…”