Impact of domestic violence against pregnant women in Minia governorate, Egypt: a cross sectional study

Background Domestic violence is a common problem that is related to many serious short-term and long-term health hazards around the world. Methods During obtaining the medical history from the participants, the questions used to assess the abuse were derived from the widely used Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS). Potential risk factors including a variety of socio-demographic and reproductive health-relation indicators were assessed. The influence of violence on the pregnancy outcome was determined by the continuous follow-up till giving birth. Results 513 pregnant women were included. The prevalence of violence among them was 50.8%. The prevalence of physical, sexual, verbal, and emotional abuse was 30.2, 20, 41.7, and 45.4% respectively. Exposure to violence during pregnancy had significant effects on the women and their pregnancy outcome in the form of development of vaginal infection ( P -value =0.036), vaginal bleeding (P-value = 0.008), preterm labour (P-value = 0.003), premature rupture of membrane (P-value = 0.001). Conclusion Violence against pregnant women in Minia Governorate, Egypt is common especially emotional violence and it has many adverse effects on the women and their pregnancy outcome. One of the most important risk factors is the fear of the husband which makes violence a continuous vicious circle.