Article Sidebar
Article Details
The entire contents of the Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use.
This journal content is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Main Article Content
Domestic Violence Against Pregnant Nigerian Women
Abstract
Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of domestic violence against pregnant women in Enugu, Nigeria and to identify the risk factors promoting such violence.
Study Design, Setting and Subjects:Trained personnel administered a self-reporting domestic-abuse questionnaire to 409 women attending antenatal clinics at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital between May and August 2000.
Results:A total of 424 women were attending antenatal clinics at the time of the study, of whom 409 agreed to participate in the study. One hundred and fifty two (37.2%) had a previous history of abuse. Fifty-three women (13.0%) had been abused in the preceding twelve months and 45 (11.0%) during the index pregnancy. Eleven women (2.7%) had been sexually abused in the preceding one year, while 3.4% reported being afraid of their husbands. The risk factors for being the victim of domestic abuse, in descending order of magnitude, were financial problems (17.7%), having only female children (11.1%), unplanned pregnancy (8.8%), unemployment (4.4%) and previous caesarean section (4.4%).
Conclusion:Prevalence of domestic violence was high among Nigerian pregnant women. Routine screening of prenatal women for domestic violence should be introduced during antenatal care.
Key Words: Domestic Violence, Pregnancy, Partners, Screening
[Trop J Obstet Gynaecol, 2003, 20: 116-118]
