The prevalence of violence against women during pregnancy and postpartum in Iran

Background and Violence against women is considered a form of domestic violence. During pregnancy it could cause a range of adverse outcomes for mother and baby. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of violence against women during pregnancy and postpartum and its related factors.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on the incidence of maternal mortality in 2015 in six provinces in Iran. In each province 24 public health centers were selected using stratified random sampling. In each center, 15-20 mothers who had at least one session of prenatal care were examined. Data was collected simultaneously from the records available in health centers and interviewing the mothers, then analyzed in SPSS18 at a significance level of α Among 2704 mothers participating in the study, the prevalence of physical violence during pregnancy and postpartum was 8.10% and 28% suffered from psychological violence. Among 31 variables studied, 10 had a significant relationship with both physical abuse and psychological violence (P>0.05). Multistage multivariate analysis of variance showed that 7 variables had significant relationship with physical violence, and 6 variables were associated with psychological violence (P>0.05).
Despite records available in family’s’ files, a considerable rate of domestic violence was observed against mothers in Iran, therefore, health providers are ought to prevent this by taking appropriate actions.