Domestic Violence among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in a PHC Facility in Jos North LGA Plateau State Nigeria

Abstract

Domestic violence during pregnancy is a focused attack that puts not just one but two lives at risk, the pregnant woman and the unborn fetus. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in a PHC facility in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to obtain information from the pregnant women after an informed verbal consent was gotten from the women.Out of the 201 pregnant women interviewed, 58(28.9%) experienced violence in the previous pregnancy while 64(31.8%) experienced violence in the index pregnancy. The most frequent form of violence was forceful sexual intercourse followed by threat and slapping which accounted for 60.9%, 20.3% and 18.7% respectively. Factors that were found to be strongly associated with domestic violence on the part of the husbands were low educational level (p=0.05), unskilled workers (p=0.024), alcohol consumption (p<0.001) and multiple sexual partners (p<0.001). On the part of the women, the factors were alcohol consumption (p<0.001), multiple sexual partners (p<0.001), polygamous marriage (p=0.02) and being HIV positive (p=0.001).This study found that violence among pregnant women is common in our environment and associated with partner’s low educational level, unskilled workers and the highest predictors being multiple sexual partners, alcohol consumption and being HIV positive.