Physical and sexual abuse is common around the time of pregnancy, especially among certain subgroups of women, according to a large national survey of Canadian women who had recently given birth.1 During interviews conducted within 14 months of their delivery, 11% of women said they had been threatened, pushed, hit or subjected to other forms of physical or sexual abuse in the previous two years, and more than half of these women (6% overall) had been abused multiple times. The prevalence of abuse was particularly high among women who were aged 15–19 (41%), were not married or cohabiting (35%) or were of aboriginal ethnicity (31%). Violence was more common before than during pregnancy, and was most frequently perpetrated by partners.
To obtain national estimates of abuse prevalence around the time of pregnancy, researchers surveyed a stratified random sample of 6,421 Canadian women aged 15 or older who had had a singleton birth 5–14 months earlier. The survey, conducted by phone in 2006–2007, collected information on women's demographic characteristics, as well as on whether the women had experienced any of 10 types of physical or sexual abuse in the past two years. Participants who had experienced abuse were asked about the frequency of the abuse, their relationship to the perpetrator and whether the abuse had occurred before, during or after the pregnancy. The researchers calculated weighted descriptive statistics on the prevalence, frequency and type of abuse according to women's characteristics, with a special emphasis on "lone women" (those who were not married or cohabiting) and women with a low standard of living (those living in lower income households that spent a disproportionate share of their earnings on such necessities as food and shelter).
Two‐thirds of women in the weighted sample were aged 25–34, and nearly three‐fourths had some postsecondary education. The vast majority (92%) were married or cohabiting, and 83% lived in urban areas. One in five had a low standard of living. Twenty‐four percent of women were foreign‐born; 4% were aboriginal.
Overall, 11% of women had been a victim of violence during the past two years. Prevalence of abuse varied by age, education and economic status; it was elevated among younger women (41% among those aged 15–19 and 22% among 20–24‐year‐olds), women who had not finished high school (24%) and women with a low standard of living (21%). Abuse was reported more often by aboriginal women (31%) than by other Canadian‐born women (12%) or by foreign‐born respondents (6%), and more often by lone women (35%) than by married or cohabiting women (9%).
Five percent of all women reported having been abused once, while 4% had experienced abuse 2–5 times and 2% six or more times; repeated abuse was especially common among lone mothers (25%) and women with a low standard of living (13%). Six percent of women were abused before pregnancy, but not during or after; 1% reported having been abused only during pregnancy, 1% only after delivery and 2% during some combination of the three periods.
Three in five abused women had been pushed, grabbed or shoved; half had had someone threaten to hit them, and two in five had had something thrown at them. Smaller proportions had been kicked, bitten or punched (31%); slapped (23%); hit with something other than a fist (17%); choked (10%); threatened or attacked with a gun or knife (8%); beaten (7%); or forced to engage in sexual activity (6%). More than half of victims had been abused repeatedly: Thirty‐seven percent reported 2–5 instances of abuse, and 19% reported six or more. Repeated abuse was especially prevalent among lone mothers (74%) and women with a low standard of living (65%). Fifty‐two percent of women (and 67% of lone mothers) who experienced violence reported that their partner had been the perpetrator; 21% said that violence had been perpetrated by a stranger, 17% by a family member, and 13% by a friend or acquaintance.
The majority of abused women said the violence had occurred during only one of the three time periods—56% before pregnancy, 13% during pregnancy and 9% after delivery. However, 18% had been abused during two of these periods, and 5% during all three. Most women who had been abused before becoming pregnant said that no abuse occurred during the pregnancy; however, half of those who experienced abuse during pregnancy reported that the abuse started when they were pregnant. Overall, 76% of abused women experienced violence before pregnancy, 30% during pregnancy and 20% after delivery. Only three in five abused women had received information during the past two years concerning what to do about abuse.
The researchers note that the levels of abuse they observed may be underestimates (because some women do not disclose abuse) and that the study did not examine emotional abuse. Moreover, the generalizability of the findings is reduced because the sample did not include women who had had twins or other multiple births, whose infants were stillborn or died shortly after birth, or who lived on First Nations reserves. Nonetheless, the investigators recommend that women "be monitored for abuse not only during pregnancy but also before and after pregnancy," and that information on what to do when one experiences abuse be made more readily available to victims.—P. Doskoch