Intimate Partner Violence During Pregnancy: A Pilot Intervention Program in Lima, Peru

Abstract

This pilot study examined the effectiveness of standard care and an empowerment intervention for abused pregnant women. Severe psychological abuse was most prevalent (42.2%) among this sample of women. Compared with women in the standard care group at the post-intervention survey, women in the empowerment group were more likely to hide money (44.6% vs. 34.3%), establish a code with family or friends (19.6% vs. 16.2%), ask neighbors to call police if violence began (6.9% vs. 1.0%), had available bank account numbers (17.1% vs. 3.1%), had valuable jewelry (8.4% vs. 3.8%), and had available a hidden bag with extra clothing (9.0% vs. 3.1%). However, there was no statistically significant difference in health-related quality of life, adoption of safety behaviors, and use of community resources between women in the two groups. Simply asking pregnant women about abuse and offering referral could potentially interrupt and prevent further abuse.

The impact of a referral card-based intervention on intimate partner violence, psychosocial health, help-seeking and safety behaviour during pregnancy and postpartum: a randomized controlled trial

“…A significant reduction in IPVv prevalence rates over time, regardless of the type of treatment, is consistent with findings from other intervention studies conducted in a variety of social and health settings. Another important finding is that there appear insignificant differences between intervention and control groups, which is in line with that of Cripe et al [22], Zlotnick et al [72], Curry et al [73], Humphreys et al [74]. However, some RCTs, which evaluate home visit programs [27,69,75,76] and typically address several issues (e.g.…”

“…In recent years, research across the western world and increasingly in low-and middle-income countries has generated growing evidence that experiencing violence (as victim as well as perpetrator) in the perinatal period is related to risk behaviour and detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of women, men and children [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. A cohort study of women aged 18-44 years suggested that IPVv was responsible for 7.9% of the overall burden of disease, which was more prominent than other risk factors such as high blood pressure, tobacco, and obesity [29,30].…”

Intimate Partner Violence During Pregnancy: Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes

“…Yet, other studies implementing interventions did not find significant differences in IPV between the intervention and control groups however these were pilot studies. 98,99 Furthermore, in one of the pilot studies, the majority of the sample reported ''severe'' abuse, which related to greater impairment. Thus, the impact of a brief intervention may be limited in women with severe forms of abuse.…”

A Literature Review of Strategies for the Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence During the Childbearing Years

“…The empowerment approach also yielded some significant results in a subsequent study conducted in Peru by Cripe et al (2010). The study, which involved 220 women randomly assigned to either empowerment treatment or a control group receiving standard care, consisted of asking about abuse and offering program referrals.…”

“…Finally, we think it worthy of note that several studies that we have discussed in this section have suggested that the presence of an IPV assessment may itself contribute to reducing or halting future abuse by simply making women aware of this concern (Cripe et al, 2010;McFarlane et al, 2000;Tiwari et al, 2005); therefore, future research should seek to distinguish between outcomes prompted by screening alone and those that can be credited to specific intervention programs that could be generalized to multiple groups and locations.…”