Abstract:

Objective: To study the prevalence, patterns and risk factors of domestic violence during pregnancy, and to investigate victims' perception of its reasons and their reaction towards it. Patients and

Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study
was carried on 450 pregnant women attending the antenatal care clinic of Sohag University Hospital in the period from May to December 2008. Each woman was asked to answer questions of a questionnaire, which consisted of questions about the woman’s sociodemographic and reproductive characteristics, being exposed to domestic violence during the current pregnancy or not, frequency of exposure, type of violence, and her perception of its reasons and her reaction towards it. Those who could not read were helped by the interviewer (the author) by asking the questions verbally and their answers to the questionnaire were written by the interviewer.

Results: Out of 450 women, 431 accepted to take part in the study. Of theses who accepted to participate in the study, 243 reported that they have been exposed to one or more type of violence during the current pregnancy, giving a prevalence rate of (56.38%). 157 (64.61%) reported exposure to physical violence, 196 (80.66%) and 91 (37.45) to psychological and sexual violence respectively. Domestic violence was more likely to occur among women aged less than 20 years (OR 1.25, CI1.11-1.46), illiterate women (OR 1.31, CI 1.17-1.49), women married to illiterate husbands (OR1.47, CI1.22-1.61), or unemployed husbands (OR 1.19, CI 1.10-1.42), recently divorced women while being pregnant (OR 1.23, CI 1.14-1.49), and those with unwanted pregnancies (OR 1.39, CI 1.18-1.55). The husband was the perpetrator in more than half of the participants (51.03%). Two thirds of the participants reported exposure to violence few times per week.

Conclusion: and recommendations: Domestic
violence against pregnant women has a high prevalence rate among Upper Egypt community, and psychological
violence is the most common form. Routine screening during the antenatal visits is necessary in order to identify the
abused women so as to prevent potential trauma and to interrupt existing abuse.