• Posted December 6, 2024

1 in 20 Pregnant U.S. Women Face Emotional, Physical Abuse

Pregnancy can be a trying time for women at best, but new research shows that 1 in every 20 pregnant American women also suffer physical, sexual or emotional abuse.

Abuse can take a toll on the mental and physical health of the mom-to-be and her baby, because it's strongly linked to "delayed prenatal care, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]," the research team wrote.

The new study also showed that abuse experienced in pregnancy can raise risks for maternal substance abuse, premature delivery and low birth weight.

The research was led by Megan Steele-Baser, of the Division of Violence Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Her team looked at 2016-2022 data on self-reported levels of physical or sexual violence and emotional abuse for pregnant women living in Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.

Women were also asked about the state of their health and health care during the pregnancy.

The data showed that more than 1 in every 20 of the women (5.4%) had some experience of abuse from an intimate parter during their pregnancy.

Emotional abuse (denigrating comments, yelling and other abuse) was most common, with 5.2% of women citing these experiences, while 1.5% of women suffered physical violence from a partner and 1% cited sexual violence.

All of this could seriously impact pregnancy outcomes.

For example, experiencing emotional abuse was linked to a near-tripling of the risk for depression during pregnancy, and it greatly raised the odds that a mom-to-be would smoke or use alcohol or marijuana.

Physical violence inflicted on a pregnant women upped her chances of depression nearly three-fold, and it raised her chances for gestational high blood pressure by 30% and preterm birth by 50%, the research showed.

Sometimes, outcomes can be fatal: According to Steele-Baser and colleagues, 40% of homicides affecting pregnant women coincide with intimate partner violence.

The researchers also noted that suicide, drug overdose and other forms of fatalities linked to mental health issues remain the leading cause of death for pregnant women. All may be linked to depression, which can easily arise in the context of abuse by an intimate partner.

According to Steele-Baser's team, more can and must be done to prevent these tragedies.

"Addressing multiple intimate partner violence types through comprehensive prevention efforts is critical to supporting maternal ad infant health," they wrote.

The new findings were published Dec. 5 in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

More information

Find out more about signs of depression in pregnancy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Dec. 5, 2024