Domestic violence is, according to the World Health Organization, a public health problem, of increased severity during pregnancy, affecting the health of the woman and the fetus. The objective of this study was to identify the factors related to domestic violence during pregnancy. Quantitative, descriptive, correlational study with a non-probability convenience sample consisting of 852 postpartum women, of whom 370 were victims of domestic violence according to criteria adopted by the modified scale of prevalence data collected between February and June 2012 in two Portuguese public institutions of health, one in the Central Region and the other in Greater Lisbon. The prevalence of domestic violence during pregnancy was 43.4%. Predictive factors were the immigrant partner/spouse (p<0.001), with academic qualifications ≤ 9 years (p<0.001) and unemployed (p<0.001); ≤ 1000 euros monthly income (p<0.001) and good agglomeration index (p=0.002); planned pregnancy (p<0.001), but not monitored (p<0.001). Domestic violence during pregnancy is highly prevalent being more frequent among partners of socioeconomically disadvantaged classes, in families with few members, who despite planning the pregnancy, do not do a proper surveillance. This knowledge of improper surveillance of maternal and fetal health should function as a warning sign for the health professionals of a need for an early intervention.
Coutinho et al. (Thu,) studied this question.