Abstract
Objective:
To characterize domestic violence in pregnancy.
Method:
Cross-sectional, exploratory and analytical study of domestic violence with 385 women who attended a public maternity. The Chi-square test of Pearson and Fisher exact test were used to verify associations and considering significant results p<0.05. Data of the sociodemographic characteristics of women, partners and family members and items of “Abuse Assessment Screen-AAS” were collected.
Results:
Domestic violence compromised 36.9% of women at some point in life and 34.6% during pregnancy. Prevalence rates were due to psychological (97.1%), physical (48.7%) and sexual (4.9%) violence and the partner was the main aggressor. The following variables were signifcantly associated with domestic violence: protestant religion (p=0.0022), lack of planning of pregnancy (p=0.0196), low family income (p=0.0215) and partner drinking habit (p=0,0002).
Conclusion:
Domestic violence should be systematically investigated during pregnancy, with special attention to protestant pregnant women, women who did not plan their pregnancy and women whose partners are alcoholics.
Keywords
Obstetrical nursing; Maternal-child nursing; Domestic violence; Pregnancy; Sociodemographic factors