Intimate partner violence and unintended pregnancy: prevalence and associated factors

Abstract

This study investigated the association between unintended pregnancy and intimate partner violence before pregnancy. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 1,054 women, aged 18 to 49, in Recife, Northeastern Brazil, from July 2005 to March 2006. Non-conditional logistic regression analysis was performed with a hierarchical strategy for entering variables into the model, according to the conceptual framework defined. Unintended pregnancy was reported by 60.3% (636) women. Intimate partner violence prior to the pregnancy was associated with unintended pregnancy (ORadj = 1.57; 95%CI: 1.17-2.11), even when adjusted for the women's sociodemographic characteristics, the partner's behaviour, and the relationship dynamic. When the association was adjusted for the use of contraception and the partner's refusal to use contraception, the association was no longer significant, suggesting that the effect of partner violence on unintended pregnancy may be mediated by these variables. The findings point to the need of screening for intimate partner violence in reproductive health services.

Intimate partner violence against pregnant women: the environment according to Levine's nursing theory

“…The comparable variables are related to the greater number of single women, with white skin, mostly in their reproductive age, with low education levels, with a low paying job, putting them in unfavorable economic and social levels. Regarding obstetric history, other studies (14,19) with pregnant women in situations of violence indicate that most of them are multiparous women with previous abortion experiences and unplanned pregnancies who start prenatal care in the second trimester of pregnancy.…”

“…This is a reality in women's lives that relates to abusive partners (9) . Studies (22)(23) show that women who experience various forms of IPV before and/or during pregnancy have a greater chance of performing unsafe abortions.…”

“…International (5)(6)(7) and national (8)(9)(10)(11) studies indicate a high prevalence of IPV during pregnancy, which can be severe and recurrent in a continuous pattern (10)(11) . Elements for its occurrence can be identified as: economic dependency, low education, unplanned pregnancy, previous experience of violence in childhood or adolescence and abuse of legal and/ or illegal drugs (1)(2)5) .…”

Postpartum depression among women with unintended pregnancy

“…: a) I was trying to get pregnant; b) I wanted to get pregnant; c) I wanted to get pregnant, but not then (untimely/mistimed); d) I did not want to get pregnant at all (unwanted); e) it made no difference either way”. 1 Women who chose one of the first two alternatives (“a” or “b”) were classified as having an intended pregnancy, and those who chose item “c” or “d”, as an unintended pregnancy. The “made no difference” answers were reclassified into one of these two categories based on the analysis of other variables, which assessed the attitudes and feelings of the women in relation to their pregnancy, such as: reaction to discovering pregnancy, reasons for not wanting to get pregnant and using contraceptives in the period before the pregnancy.…”

“…They proposed using the term unwanted pregnancy to refer to those pregnancies in cases where the women did not want to have more children, and mistimed pregnancy, when the mother would have liked to have them at another time, grouping both these categories within another (unintended). 4 In Brazil, the term – in Portuguese – “ gravidez não pretendida ”, used in the same sense as “unintended pregnancy”, had already been proposed by Azevedo et al 1 (2013).…”