Skip to main content

CDC: ~5 Percent of Pregnant Women Report Intimate Partner Violence

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Dec 6, 2024.

via HealthDay

THURSDAY, Dec. 5, 2024 -- Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is associated with delayed or no prenatal care and affects health conditions during pregnancy and infant birth outcomes, according to research published in the Dec. 5 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Megan Steele-Baser, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues examined associations between IPV during pregnancy among women with a recent live birth with prenatal care initiation, health conditions during pregnancy, substance use during pregnancy, and infant birth outcomes using data from the 2016 to 2022 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System in nine U.S. jurisdictions.

The researchers found that IPV was reported by 5.4 percent of the women during pregnancy, with emotional IPV the most prevalent, followed by physical and sexual IPV (5.2, 1.5, and 1.0 percent, respectively). There were associations for all types of IPV with delayed or no prenatal care; depression during pregnancy; cigarette smoking; alcohol, marijuana, or illicit substance use; and having a low-birth-weight infant. Associations were seen for physical, sexual, and any IPV with having a preterm birth. There was an association observed for physical IPV with pregnancy-related hypertension.

"This report reinforces the importance of recognizing emotional, physical, and sexual IPV during pregnancy as a serious public health concern," the authors write. "Because pregnant women experiencing IPV are less likely to receive timely prenatal care, prevention education and intervention in other program models, such as home visitation programs, can be considered."

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Features of Immunesenescence Present in Early Stages of Rheumatoid Arthritis

THURSDAY, Sept. 11, 2025 -- Some features of immunesenescence are present in the very early stages of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a study published online Sept. 3 in...

Urine Biomarker Panel Sensitive, Specific for Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

THURSDAY, Sept. 11, 2025 -- A urine-based biomarker panel has high accuracy for diagnosing prostate cancer (PCa), according to a study published in the September issue of...

Hospitals Vary in Their Definition of Blood Culture Contamination

THURSDAY, Sept. 11, 2025 -- U.S. hospitals vary in how they define blood culture contamination (BCC), according to a study published online July 11 in the Journal of Clinical...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.