My deep interest in health care and decision to devote my career to nursing brought me to the exploration of one of the most problematic issues in this field, namely domestic violence. It has been within the scope of my scientific and professional interests for a substantial amount of time. Gaining my practical experience at the emergency aid service, I encountered cases of domestic violence relatively often. The most compelling cases were those where pregnant women were involved. Moreover, it was quite a shock for me to witness injured pregnant women delivered to the maternity hospital where I had a chance to work. Having conducted some brief research among the personnel of the hospital, I found out that recently the cases of pregnant women suffering from domestic violence have grown significantly. This fact incited me to do more precise and thorough qualitative research. In the nearest future, I plan to conduct more extensive research, applying statistical methods to study my samples of victims gathered in the hospitals of the city.
My analysis of the literature in the field made me even more concerned with the problem of pregnant women domestic violence. According to the World Health Organization, more than 35% of women at least once in a lifetime experienced physical violence from their partner (2014, par. 2). It is common knowledge that pregnancy is the most critical period of a woman’s life as her vulnerability to various harmful influences increases. Pregnancy becomes the most dangerous time to fall victim to violence both physical and psychological, as any damage to the mother’s body affects the state of the fetus (Ellsberg, Arango, Morton, Gennari, & Sveinung, 2015). Among the key adverse health outcomes are injuries of internal organs, increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, preterm birth, low birth weight, miscarriage and neonatal death (Leneghan, Gillen, & Sinclair, 2012). Researchers have found out that cases of individual partner violence connected with pregnancy can also cause health damages one year before conceiving and one year after the birth of a child (Parys, Verhamme, Temmerman, & Verstraelen, 2014). It is also considered that pregnant women are exposed to a greater risk of domestic violence, “with prevalence rates of 5% to 21% during pregnancy and 13% to 21% postnatally” (Legenhan, Gillen, & Sinclair, 2012, p. 137).
Looking for some practical examples of how even a relatively mild physical influence can lead to the death of a pregnant woman, I came across the case of a 22-year-old Pakistani woman. Her husband kicked a shoe at her lumbosacral area. The woman fell, lost consciousness at the hospital and died in 10 hours. No signs of physical violence were found after external and internal examinations. The cause of her death was revealed only after the abdomen incision. The fetal death occurred due to hypoxemia developing secondary to maternal shock and the mother’s death was caused by successive cardiorespiratory failure (Qamar, Khan, & Memon, 2014).
Such figures and facts made me arrive at the thought that some effective intervention mechanisms should be established to reduce cases of domestic violence at all stages of pregnancy. Healthcare providers and family planning services should conduct regular screening of pregnant women, especially those from the high-risk layers of society, provide them with consultations and motivate the abused women to defend their rights. No cases of domestic violence should be hushed up, and women must be free and not afraid, to tell the truth before it becomes too late.
References
Ellsberg, M., Arango, D., Morton, M., Gennari, F., & Kiplesund, S. (2015). Prevention of violence against women and girls: What does the evidence say? The Lancet, 385(9977), 1555-1566.
Leneghan, L., Gillen, P., & Sinclair, M. (2012). Interventions to reduce domestic abuse in pregnancy: A qualitative systematic review. Evidence Based Midwifery, 10(4), 137-142.
Parys, A., Verhamme, A., Temmerman, M., & Verstraelen, H. (2014). Intimate partner violence and pregnancy: A systematic review of interventions. PLoS One, 9(1).
Qamar, N., Khan, M., & Memon, J. (2014). Domestic violence causing abruptio placenta and feto-maternal death: Case report on autopsy. ASH & KMDC, 19(2), 106-108.
World Health Organization. (2014). Violence against women. Web.