Articles Review on Violence Against Pregnant Women

This article explains how the economic level of development is related to women's health. Lester argues that there is high death rate in undeveloped nations majorly caused by poverty. Lester argues that women in undeveloped nations face great challenge accessing healthcare services because the lack enough resources to serve the huge population of the country. The author further states that getting medications in such countries is a problem; the cure of diseases in such undeveloped countries does not only depend on the discovery of new medications but majorly depends on the access to basic services. Lester also explains the underlying injustices in the undeveloped countries that also increase the rate of women's suffering. Lester suggests the approaches to help such countries; for example, because of the low economic status rich countries should help undeveloped countries to thrive economically and socially. Lester says that even without the help of donor countries, undeveloped countries can still improve their healthcare systems through channeling enough resources to health sectors; however, the problem that continues to affect the undeveloped countries is the problem of corruption and social injustices like gender inequality. Women in undeveloped countries will still continue to suffer if the current status of gender issue is still affecting their countries; Lester argues that women should be empowered to reduce the cases of mistreatments. Another intervention he explains is the establishment of community-based programs. Lester says that people in such undeveloped countries experiences rough times because they cannot access healthcare services easily. Therefore, starting community social services can help reduce the problem. He also advocates for gender equality programs and girl-child education.

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Okenwa, L., Lawoko, S., & Jansson, B. (2011). Contraception, reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes among women exposed to intimate partner violence in Nigeria. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care, 16(1), 18-25.

This article examines the relationship between healthcare practices and their outcomes for women in Nigeria. The authors explain the effects of womens exposure to intimate partner violence in Nigeria. They further explain the relationship between contraception and intimate partner violence amongst women in Nigeria. The authors argue that the issue of intimate partner violence amongst women of Nigeria is a critical issue that should be assessed. Okenw et al. (2010) further explain that the outcomes of the intimate partner violence amongst pregnant women in Nigeria include; abortion, miscarriages, stillbirths, infant mortality. They further examine the use of contraception as a challenge to most women in Nigeria and other developing nations that result to the birth of many children.

The authors carried out a survey of the demographic healthcare reports in Nigeria in 2008. They used the national representative figure a sample of 33,385 women who still at the age of reproductive. They define intimate partner violence as the physical exposure of women to sexual and emotional abuse. They also assessed the relationship between the uses of contraception and related to the most likely outcomes, infant mortality. Intimate partner violence rate was also assessed using the chi-square test for the unadjusted analyzes to control the potential confounding study of socio-demographic variables.

Some of the findings of the study include; the social-economic factors are still a challenge in developing countries that affect the health status of its people. Okenwa et al. 2010) found that most women who were exposed to intimate partner violence were most likely to be using the modern forms of contraception. Most of the women who were exposed to intimate partner violence were most likely to have experienced health problems such as; miscarriage, induced abortions, and infant mortality. The authors conclude their study by recommending that the study has significant implications for incorporation of intimate partner violence and management and would be helpful in enhancing the reproductive health of women.

Okour, A. M., & Badarneh, R. (2011). Spousal violence against pregnant women from a Bedouin community in Jordan. Journal of women's health,20(12), 1853-1859.

The problem of intimate partner violence has dominated the third world countries. According to the Okour et al. (2011), states that most third world countries are dominated by IPV that extremely affects the women, especially during pregnancy. The authors argue that the effects of IPV during pregnancy is most likely to affect the women and their unborn babies that may lead to increase in socio-economic costs. Some of the effects from the IPV include; preterm birth and low birth weight.

The study involved an interview of victims of IPV in Jordan. The participants were collected from the health records from Jordan Ministry of Health research ethics committee. The study specified the criteria of participants as; those who have experienced IPV in the past 12 months, at the age of 18 and above and married and living with their husbands.

Some of the findings from the research were; many women were afraid of reporting the IPV cases to the authorities. Research showed that around 40% of the participants had disclosed their experience to other parties and only 5% were able to discuss it directly with their GP. Most of the women were embarrassed to disclose their experiences to their violent partners; around 80% were very embarrassed and afraid of their partners. Most of them were afraid of admitting their experiences publicly, and they preferred filling out the details on paper.

Van Parys, A., Verhamme, A., Temmerman, M. & Verstraelen, H. (2014). Intimate partner violence and pregnancy: A systematic review of interventions. PloS One, 9(1), e85084. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085084

This article examines the incidence of IPV and some of the interventions that can be used to help control the problem among women especially when they are at the prenatal stage. The authors state that IPV has consequences that might be tragic and uncontrollable; therefore, interventions should be placed in a place to help prevent the tragic outcomes of the problems among victims.

The article involved a survey of the health institutions websites such as; PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library. The research was limited to English published records between the year 2000 and 2013.

The research findings include; few interventions have been put in place to control the IPV especially during pregnancy among women. The research also found that amongst the study cases, nine of them were not effective to be used in controlling the IPV during pregnancy. However, very few study cases showed the significant decrease in IPV, especially on physical assault, and sexual assault. Few pieces of evidence were found on mental health and emotional interventions among pregnant women.

Stoeckl, H., Hertlein, L., Himsl, I., Delius, M., Hasbargen, U., Friese, K., & Stockl, D. (2012). Intimate partner violence and its association with pregnancy loss and pregnancy planning. Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica,91(1), 128-133.

This article examines the effects of physical IPV during pregnancy and the effects of IPV during pregnancy. The authors argue that physical IPV among pregnant women is most likely to result in pregnancy loss and unplanned pregnancy.

The research involved study survey on the effects of physical IPV on pregnant women. The study used a descriptive statistics based on the X2 and multivariate logistics regression. Some of the findings from the research were; around 73% of women experienced pregnancy loss due to physical assault from their partners during pregnancy. Around 13% of the participants reported of unplanned pregnancies that resulted from sexual violence with their partners. 4% of the participants reported sexual assault by their current partners.

Zuckerman, B., Amaro, H., Fried, L. E., & Cabral, H. (1990). Violence during pregnancy and substance abuse. The American Journal of Public Health, 80(5), 575-579.

This article examines the violent incidents amongst women. The authors state that victims of violent intimate partner violence were most likely to record health problems; for example, some of the victims had a record of attempted suicide as a result of the stress and depression from the experience. In other cases, victims were engaged in negative behaviors such as smoking and abusing other drug substances such as marijuana and cocaine. Some of other effects experienced by pregnant women have gone through the IPV experience includes; developing a drinking habit during pregnancy.

The authors involved a study survey on 1,243 pregnant women. The study involved every aspect of socio-economic life; for example, participants came from both, rural, urban areas and where women were dominated. From their findings, around 7% of the total participants showed that they were assaulted sexually and physically by their partners. The research also showed that most women were aware of the perpetrators of their situation; around 94% had an idea about the people who exposed them to their predicament. The study findings showed the significance of assessing the exposure of women to IPV during pregnancy. The study majorly concentrated on the women with drug addiction effects during pregnancy. The authors highlighted some of the risks associated with the drug use during pregnancy by women or their partners who use the drugs; for instance, it might cause complication during birth giving that may result in health complications among women or children.

Howard, L. M., Trevillion, K., & Agnew-Davies, R. (2010). Domestic violence and mental health. International Review of Psychiatry, 22(5), 525-534.

This article tries to examine the causes and effects of IPV during prenatal stages. Some of the effects associated with the IPV during pregnancy according to the authors include; depression and anxiety disorders that may result in mental health problems. The study involved a meta-analysis review method from the electronic databases on women aged 16 years and above who have experienced domestic violence. The study involved assessment of the symptoms of the victims during their prenatal stages using a validated instrument. Some of the major findings of the research were; most women recorded the experience of IPV with their partners and in most cases resulted in anxiety and depression. A Higher number of symptoms were recorded in the antenatal and postnatal stages in the cross-sectional study.