The Effects of Different Types of Domestic Violence on Pregnant Women and Its Relationship to Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes

Background: Domestic violence against pregnant women is a major health problem in the world, as it not only endangers the health of the mother but also affects some of her fetal and infant health criteria. According to WHO estimates, the rate of physical violence during pregnancy in developing countries is 32%. The prevalence of violence includes psychological, physical and sexual violence, respectively. This review study aimed to investigate the effects of different types of domestic violence on maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women.Methods: This article is a review article with search on sites such as PubMed, SID, EMBASE, Scopus, Google scholar and Magiran. Articles coordinated with the specified criteria collected from 2012 to 2019 and reported in a paper.Results: The results show that the occurrence of domestic violence during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, low birth weight, preterm birth, vaginal bleeding during pregnancy, cesarean delivery, preeclampsia, dystocia and postpartum depression. Domestic violence during pregnancy has a significant correlation with the developmental status of children and most of the infants damage is in cognitive and behavioral domains. Research shows that there is a relationship between social support and the occurrence of domestic violence in pregnancy, and the greater the family and social support, the less domestic violence against pregnant women decreases. Studies show that domestic violence during pregnancy is associated with adverse economic status, duration of marriage less than 5 years, first pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy, dissatisfied marriage, and history of depression, addiction of wife and spouse, and inadequate prenatal care. There is an inverse relationship with the education of the spouse, the employment of the spouse, the satisfaction of living together and social support. There is a relationship between physical and psychological violence associated with being unemployed, smoking, alcohol, narcotic drugs, and multiple marriages.Conclusion: Due to the negative effects of domestic violence on the outcomes and complications of pregnancy and the evidence of the effectiveness of preventive, screening and intervention programs on domestic violence, it is recommended to routinely screen all unwanted pregnancies in violence screening in all health centers and prevention through education and counseling can be effective in improving pregnancy, delivery and newborn status.

کلیدواژه ها:

Domestic violence ، pregnant women ، Family violence ، Pregnancy