Survey of fetal abuse status and predisposing factors in pregnant women referred to the selected hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 2012

Fetal abuse is a crisis in public health, because it causes irreparable physical, psychological, social and economic damage. Due to the importance of this issue, this study was performed with aim to determine the fetal abuse status and predisposing factors.
This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 250 pregnant women referred to the hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in 2012. Data collection tools were demographic characteristics questionnaire, Beck Anxiety Inventory and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and a questionnaire containing the questions regarding to fetal abuse and predisposing factors. Data was analyzed using SPSS software (version 18) and Chi-square and Fisher exact test. P In this stud, there was significant difference between the awareness of the number of prenatal care, awareness of the benefits and risks of ultrasound and smoking during pregnancy with women and their spouses’ education (P The most common predisposing factors of fetal abuse are the mother's unawareness from the number of prenatal care, the risks of smoking during pregnancy, the benefits and risks of ultrasound during pregnancy, no receiving prenatal care, unwanted sex of the fetus, and using smoking by the spouse.