Intimate partner violence during pregnancy - Prevalence and associations with women's health: A cross-sectional study

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women occurs in all settings. Exposure to intimate partner violence, especially during pregnancy, is associated with serious adverse health outcomes and is recognized as a global health issue.

To describe the prevalence of physical, psychological, and sexual intimate partner violence among pregnant women in Sweden during current pregnancy, and to investigate potential associations between exposure and sociodemographic characteristics and health.

Between October and December 2020, a cross-sectional survey study was conducted at 35 midwifery clinics in Stockholm, Sweden.

The questionnaire was answered by 3399 pregnant women. The results showed that 2.1% of the women reported exposure to intimate partner violence during pregnancy, with exposure to psychological violence being most common (1.8%), followed by exposure to physical violence (0.6%) and sexual violence (0.1%). Exposure to intimate partner violence was significantly associated with living situation and depressive symptoms, as well as education, country of birth, and employment status.

Exposure to intimate partner violence occurs even during pregnancy and it is crucial to identify pregnant women exposed to intimate partner violence in order to inform clinical practice and to provide adequate support. More research is needed to develop screening instruments to detect violence against pregnant women.