Women’s Experiences of Domestic Violence during Pregnancy: A Qualitative Research in Greece

Abstract

This qualitative research is the second part of a quantitative research that aims at recording the phenomenon of violence in pregnancy. The first part was carried out during August and September 2009 (N = 546). It was found out that the rate partner’s violence was 6%, while for 3.4% of the pregnant women, abuse started after the pregnancy. In the second part of this research, the semi-structured interview was used to investigate the way pregnant women experience violence. The sample comprised seven women abused by their partner (Ν = 7) at the women’s shelters of “Mitera” Babies’ Center and the National Social Solidarity Center between September 2010 and December 2011 and who accepted to participate in the research. The targets of the research were the investigation of the risk factors for the manifestation of violence, the profile of the victim and the perpetrator, the consequences of abuse for the woman, her reproductive health and the fetus. The majority of the abused pregnant women were foreigners and only two were Greek. The latter had experienced severe traumas (physical and psychological) since their childhood. Violence in their lives is the main characteristic of the foreign women seeking a better life in Greece, too. Alcohol use or abuse by the partners, poor socioeconomic background of the mothers and their partners, and pregnancy per se are the main risk factors of the violence against women in this period of their lives. Violence resulted in miscarriage in one case, while abortion was the alternative chosen by another as a solution to social exclusion and possible domestic violence. Anxiety and despair were the main psychological consequences. The small number of women included in the collection of qualitative data is a limitation for the research and decreases the reliability index of its results.

Pregnant women with COVID-19: the placental involvement and consequences

“…The placenta has an essential role in modulating the immune response in several viral infections (PrabhuDas et al 2015 ). Some viruses can cross the placental barrier and induce some associated severe fetal malformations (Antoniou et al 2020 ; Lee et al 2019 ). In SARS-CoV-2 infection, the viral RNA was not detected in the placenta (Chen et al 2020a ; Fan et al 2020 ; Mulvey et al 2020 ; Shanes et al 2020 ).…”

Risk Factors of Domestic Violence in Pregnancy and its Correlation with Mental Health Disorders

“…Further study on the pattern of domestic violence during pregnancy and the postpartum period should be extended to the community level. 8…”

“…According to another study done in postpartum women in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, 44% of women had physical abuse and 80% were reported to be sufferers of verbal abuse during their married life. 4,8 Previous research has found an association between mental disorder and being a victim of domestic violence (i.e., intimate partner violence and/or violence perpetrated by another family member) that is not diagnostically specific; associations have been found for common mental disorders, eating disorders, and psychosis and domestic violence in non-perinatal populations studies, equating to approximately 152,000 to 324,000 pregnant women experiencing abuse each year in the US, in low and middle-income countries the prevalence can be higher. There is strong evidence that domestic violence increases the risk of low birth weight, and growing evidence of an association with pre-term labour, miscarriage, fetal death, and subsequent child behavioural problems.…”

“…The predictors of domestic violence found in the studies could be classified into four groups: those related to either the women's, her husband's, or her mother-in-law's characteristics, and those factors shared between the married couple. 1,8 Two third of women did experience domestic violence by their husband or intimate partner. Approximately half of women experienced physical violence as well and emotional violence by their husband/ intimate partner.…”

The Content Analysis of the Articles Published Regarding Violence in Pregnancy in Turkey: 2010-2020

“…Bulgularımızda gebelikte şiddet Türkiye' de son beş yıl içinde yüzeysel girişimsel olmayan tanımlayıcı nicel çalışmalarda popüler bir konu haline gelmiştir ve daha çok bu çalışmalarda şiddet problemini tanımlamak amaçlanmıştır. Dünyanın pek çok yerinde ise, gebelikte şiddet konusunu tanımlamada araştırmacıların gündeminde sistematik derlemelerde ve derinlemesine nitel araştırmalarda odaklanılmıştı (Semahegn & Mengistie, 2015;Kataoka & Imazeki, 2018;Robinson ve ark., 2019;Antoniou, 2020;Daley ve ark., 2020). Bu bulgulara göre Türkiye örneklemindeki şiddet gören kadınlardan daha derin veri elde etmede nitel desende ve sistematik olarak planlanan çalışmalar yapılması literatürdeki bilgi boşluğuna katkı sağlayabilir.…”