Background Husband violence against his wife is one of domestic violence that has been a global public health concern worldwide. Violence during pregnancy has been associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. Aim: The aim of current study is to explore the association between exposing to husband violence during pregnancy and adverse maternal and fetal outcomes Methods design: A correlational design was adopted for a total of 280 convenient sample of low risk laboring women who admitted to labor ward of Suez Canal University Hospital. Two groups were constituted, study group (n= 147) who exposed to husband violence and control group (n= 133) who did not expose to husband violence. Data were collected from admission until birth using 1) a structured interview questionnaire to collect the socio-demographic data, obstetrical profile as well as problems associated with pregnancy, 2) Abuse Assessment Screen Tool to identify the abused women, types, frequency, and forms of violence they were exposed to. 3) Assessment sheet to collect data about the maternal and neonatal conditions and any problem may arise. Results: The results revealed that more than half of the study samples (52%) were abused by their husband. Most of them exposed to emotional violence followed by economic, physical, and then sexual violence (93.2%, 38.1%, 22.4%, &14.3% respectively). They had many complications during pregnancy including persistent vomiting (29.9%) and ante partum hemorrhage (11.5%) compared 12%, and 1.5% respectively in non- abused group (p< 0.05). Also 76.2% of them delivered by cesarean section, 27.2% had premature rupture of membranes, and 28.6% of their infants had low birth weight compared to 27.8%, 6% & 10.5% respectively in non- abused group (p |
