Pregnancy
Pregnancy, when coupled with Domestic violence, may amplify health risks. Abuse during pregnancy, whether physical, verbal or emotional, produces adverse effects for both the mother and fetus. Domestic violence during pregnancy is categorized as abusive behavior towards a pregnant woman, where the pattern of abuse can often change in terms of severity and frequency of violence. Abuse may be a long-standing problem in a relationship that continues after a woman becomes pregnant or it may commence in pregnancy. Although female-to-male partner violence occurs in these settings, the overwhelming form of domestic violence is perpetrated by men against women.
Domestic abuse can be triggered by pregnancy for a number of reasons. Pregnancy itself can be used a form of coercion and the phenomenon of preventing an intimate partner’s reproductive choice is referred to as birth control sabotage, or reproductive coercion. Studies on the birth control sabotage performed by males against female partners have indicated a strong correlation between domestic violence and birth control sabotage. Pregnancy can also lead to a hiatus of domestic violence when the abuser does not want to harm the unborn child. The risk of domestic violence for pregnant women is greatest immediately after childbirth.
In 2010, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 4.8% of women reported having had an intimate partner who tried to get them pregnant when they did not want to while 8.7% of men reported having had an intimate partner who tried to get pregnant when they did not want to or tried to stop them from using birth control.
Read more about this topic: Domestic Violence
Famous quotes containing the word pregnancy:
“If pregnancy were a book they would cut the last two chapters.”
—Nora Ephron (20th century)
“The frequency of personal questions grows in direct proportion to your increasing girth. . . . No one would ask a man such a personally invasive question as “Is your wife having natural childbirth or is she planning to be knocked out?” But someone might ask that of you. No matter how much you wish for privacy, your pregnancy is a public event to which everyone feels invited.”
—Jean Marzollo (20th century)
“Back in the days when men were hunters and chestbeaters and women spent their whole lives worrying about pregnancy or dying in childbirth, they often had to be taken against their will. Men complained that women were cold, unresponsive, frigid.... They wanted their women wanton. They wanted their women wild. Now women were finally learning to be wanton and wild—and what happened? The men wilted.”
—Erica Jong (b. 1942)