Abstract

BackgroundDomestic violence during pregnancy with its many negative fetal and maternal outcomes is a common public health problem all over the world. Nonetheless, the problem is not well investigated and understood in Ethiopia. Hence, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of domestic violence and associated factors among pregnant women attending the University of Gondar Referral Hospital antenatal care (ANC) services.MethodsA hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March–May 2016. A total of 450 pregnant women who visited the clinic were included in the study. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select study participants, and a pretested structured questionnaire was employed to collect data. The WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women was used to assess the violence against pregnant women. Descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies and percentages were computed. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify factors associated with domestic violence, and variables with p-values < 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.ResultsOf the total pregnant women surveyed, 58.7% were victims of at least one form of domestic violence during pregnancy, emotional violence being the most common (57.8%). The multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that house wives (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) = 3.43, 95% CI: 1.63, 7.21), women with no salary of their own (AOR = 3.37, 95% CI: 2.14, 7.95), partners’ daily use of alcohol (AOR = 4.59, 95%CI: 1.82, 11.56), women who believed in women’s rights to decide to be pregnant (AOR = 1.77, 95%CI: 1.18, 2.89), and women who disobeyed their partner (AOR = 2.36, 95%CI: 1.37, 4.07) were found to be positively and significantly associated with domestic violence during pregnancy.ConclusionA high proportion of pregnant women experienced domestic violence during their pregnancy. Being a housewife, poor income status, partners’ use of alcohol, unwanted pregnancy, and disobeying of the women to their partner were factors associated with domestic violence during pregnancy. Evidence based female empowerment, especially the empowerment of women without income of their own, partner education and positive relations between partners are very important to minimize the problem.

Highlights

  • Domestic violence during pregnancy with its many negative fetal and maternal outcomes is a common public health problem all over the world

  • According to the World Health Organization (WHO) multi-country study, the problem ranges from 15% in Japan to 71% in rural Ethiopia [3]

  • This study aimed to assess the prevalence of domestic violence against women and associated factors among pregnant women visiting the University of Gondar Referral Hospital for antenatal care (ANC) services

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Summary

Introduction

Domestic violence during pregnancy with its many negative fetal and maternal outcomes is a common public health problem all over the world. Studies conducted in Kisumu district hospital, Kenya [5], Rwanda [6], Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa [7], and Sao Paulo, Brazil [8], showed that one in three pregnant women experienced either physical, emotional, sexual violence or both by intimate partners during pregnancy. Previous studies revealed that pregnant women who experienced violence were found to have increased risks of ante-partum hemorrhage [15], intrauterine growth retardation [16], premature rupture of membrane [17, 18], cesarean delivery [18,19,20], preterm birth [21, 22], low birth weight babies [17, 18, 21, 23], stillbirth [15, 23, 24], and neonatal mortality [24, 25] when compared with those who did not experience the problem

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