Abstract
Background: Literature on pregnancy highlighted a large number of women abused by their partners, especially among low-income teenagers attending hospital for pregnancy check-ups. Pregnancy represents a key moment for diagnosing domestic violence. Method: This study explores health professionals’ perceptions and concerns about domestic violence against women in services dealing with pregnant women. The twenty-four interviewees were from an Obstetrical-Gynecological walk-in Clinic in the south of Italy. The textual data has been complementarily analyzed by means of two different procedures: Symbolic-structural semiotic analysis and Thematic content analysis. Results: What emerges is that the interviewees of the clinic do not regard the issue of domestic violence as a matter of direct interest for the health service. The clinic is seen as a place for urgent contact, but one where there is not enough time to dedicate to this kind of patient, nor an adequate space to care for and listen to them. Obstetricians and health personnel expressed a negative attitude when it comes to including questions regarding violence and abuse in pre-natal reports. Training for health and social professionals and the empowering of institutional support and networking practices are needed to increase awareness of the phenomenon among the gynecological personnel.
Highlights
This article deals with domestic violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy
The symbolic-structural semiotic analysis has revealed that the interviewees depict a victim of domestic violence that is torn by the difficulty of making the right choice, and is more inclined to forgive and justify her partner as a consequence
The literature [89,90] has highlighted described the poor diffusion of good practices and strategies of individual and organizational empowerment employed by health and social workers in dealing with domestic violence
Summary
This article deals with domestic violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy. There is, an increase in evidence of the violence perpetrated against women during this period [1]. The risk of being subjected to IPV increases among young girls, women belonging to an ethnic minority, the poorly educated, those of low socioeconomic status, the unemployed, and those presenting limitations in everyday activities [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Pregnancy constitutes one of those periods in a woman’s life-cycle in which the risk of being a victim of domestic violence increases considerably. Method: This study explores health professionals’ perceptions and concerns about domestic violence against women in services dealing with pregnant women. The textual data has been complementarily analyzed by means of two different procedures: Symbolic-structural semiotic analysis and Thematic content analysis
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