Violência doméstica em gestantes atendidas em uma maternidade do nordeste brasileiro: um estudo descritivo.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence against women has been widely recognized as a global health problem presenting clinical and social repercussions. The childbearing period is a time of particular vulnerability to this type of violence due to innumerable factors, but mainly due to the new emotional, physical, economic and social demands that arise with pregnancy. This scenario raises important concerns regarding the acts of violence that happens in this period of the woman's life, since they can have serious consequences for the mother-baby binomial. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the frequency of domestic violence during pregnancy in postpartum patients attended at the Instituto de Saúde Elpídio de Almeida (ISEA) in Campina Grande – Paraíba, Brazil. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 310 women attended at a public maternity in northeastern Brazil from September-December 2018. The data-collecting instrument used was a questionnaire from the World Health Organization Violence Against Women (WHO VAW) study on psychological, physical and sexual violence against women perpetrated by intimate partners. Questions about biological, socioeconomic, lifestyle and psychological aspects related to women and their intimate partner were added. Obstetric, maternal, and perinatal outcomes were documented as well. Bivariate analysis was conducted to determine the association between domestic violence and the various independent variables using the chi-square test at a 5% confidence level. RESULTS: Of the total women surveyed, 10,3% were victims of at least one form of domestic violence during pregnancy, emotional violence being the most commom (87,5%), followed by sexual violence (18.7%) and physical violence (15.6%). There was an association between domestic violence and family history of violence (p=0.012), with the number of children (p=0.01), parental abandonment by the intimate parter (p=0.02) and women's level of acceptance to violence (p = 0.009). CONCLUSION: We highlight the importance of the study to provide data that dimension the real magnitude of domestic violence during pregnancy, contributing with relevant information that will allow the planning of preventive actions and support services, thereby decreasing the prevalence of adverse health outcomes.