Intimate partner violence and perinatal health: a systematic review

Abstract

Background Physical, psychological and sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) has been described in the literature as different types of IPV experienced by women during pregnancy all over the world. Objectives To review and summarise systematically the empirical evidence on the links between IPV during pregnancy and the perinatal health of mothers and fetuses/neonates. Search strategy MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL, Embase, Nursing@ovid (Ovid) and LILACS were searched (2008–2018). Selection criteria Observational studies that examined perinatal health outcomes (i.e. pre‐term birth, low birthweight, miscarriage, perinatal death and premature rupture of membranes) in pregnant women exposed to IPV. Data collection and analysis Information on study characteristics, type of IPV measured, study design, methodological quality and outcome variable extracted. Results Fifty studies were included. Twenty‐nine analysed undifferentiated IPV (n = 25 489), 34 included physical IPV (n = 7333), 22 analysed psychological IPV (n = 7833) and 18 examined sexual IPV (n = 2388). Fifteen studies were from Asia, 12 from North America and Oceania, and 12 from Central and South America. The studies examined the association between IPV and 39 different perinatal health outcomes. The most frequent outcomes reported were pre‐term birth (50%), low birthweight (46%), miscarriage (30%), perinatal death (20%) and premature rupture of membranes (20%). A significant association with perinatal health outcomes was reported by 12 of the studies analysing undifferentiated IPV, 18 physical IPV, six psychological IPV and two sexual IPV. Conclusions The relation between IPV and perinatal health outcomes can be seen in different epidemiological designs and countries. In all, 39 different outcomes were identified and 29 were associated with IPV. Tweetable abstract A variety of poor perinatal health outcomes are associated with psychological, physical and sexual IPV.

Intimate partner violence during pregnancy in turkey: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…52 The studies in the literature provide pieces of evidence of the relationship between both low birth weight and preterm labor and violence during pregnancy. [2][3][4][5][6]54 The result that women exposed to IPVP experienced obstetric problems, which was determined by this study, was compatible with the literature.…”

Exploring the determinants and outcomes of intimate partner violence during pregnancy for Guyanese women: Results from a nationally representative cross-sectional household survey

“…The prevalence of violence during pregnancy in Guyana was high at 9.2%, which is likely to have significant downstream health consequences for these women and their children (1, 2) including on measures that we were not able to directly assess in the current study, including risk of miscarriage, premature birth, low birthweight, perinatal death, and reduced healthcare utilization by pregnant women; these outcomes should be included in future research (7)(8)(9). Similar to other studies, controlling partner behavior was significantly associated with maternal experience of physical violence during pregnancy (14,22,23).…”

“…Attention to IPV during pregnancy (IPV-P) has increased due to the substantial health consequences for women and children and high prevalence (5,6). IPV-P may cause injury to the mother and the fetus due to direct trauma; adverse maternal health behaviors such as delayed and/or reduced antenatal care, reduced skilled delivery care, and increased smoking during pregnancy (5,7); negative reproductive health outcomes including miscarriage, premature rupture of membranes; preterm delivery, unsafe abortion, low birthweight, and perinatal death (5,8,9); increased risk of child abuse and neglect in the postnatal period (10); and other physical and mental health outcomes including physical impairment and depression (5,11) as well as suicide ideation (12) and suicide attempt (13). A systematic review of the mental health sequelae of IPV-P in low-and middle-income countries found that it increased the odds of antenatal depression by 1.69-3.76 and the odds of postnatal depression by 1.46-7.04, with suicide ideation rates during pregnancy ranging from 5% to 11% and during postpartum 2% to 22% (14).…”

A Possible Next Covid-19 Pandemic: The Violence Against Women and Its Psychiatric Consequences

“…Besides, VAW and IPV might increase in pregnancy/postpartum or has deleterious effects on motherinfant bonding and child outcomes (21). In a recent systematic review, Pastor-Moreno et al (22) showed a relation between psychological IPV and adverse outcomes, including premature rupture of membranes, preterm birth, urinary tract infections, and late entry into prenatal care. In addition, sexual IPV was associated with late entry into prenatal care, urinary tract infections, and low birth weight.…”