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The prevalence and factors contributing to domestic violence among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Lusaka urban clinics in Zambia
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  1. M D Mwiinga Mtonga*
  1. Correspondence Chainama Hospital and College of Health Sciences, Lusaka 10101, Zambia

Abstract

Summary Domestic violence among pregnant women has many faces in Lusaka, Zambia.

Domestic violence among respondents was associated contraction of sexually transmitted infections, loss of pregnancy, bleeding in pregnancy, psychological trauma, divorce and social disharmony.

In this study 385 pregnant women were randomly selected and entered into he study.

Method A Cross-sectional Descriptive Study of 385 pregnant women attending six randomly selected Antenatal Clinics in Lusaka. A scheduled questionnaire, supplemented with two focus group discussions was used.

Epi Info and Multivariate analysis was done on the data thus sampled.

Results 169 (44%) had a history of domestic violence, 92 (23.9%) had experienced domestic violence in the current pregnancy.

Beatings 116 (68.6%), verbal assault at 55 (32.7), Non-consensual 18 (10.7%) were forms used.

The main perpetrators male intimate partner/husbands.

115 (40.5%) of the victims belonged to Liberal Protestant Christian Denominations, 338 (87.8%) were married and 229 (59.5%) lived in high density areas.

139 (36.4%) believed that a man was justified beating his wife/intimate partner, 101 (26.3%) of the respondents believed that a women was not justified in negotiating sex with her partner.

Women whose husbands abused alcohol were 37 times more likely to beaten than those that did not.

Traditional beliefs made domestic violence acceptable.

Discussions and Conclusions Domestic Violence among pregnancy women was common and many factors such as age, educational background, traditional beliefs, socio-economical background, church denomination and previous history of domestic violence in their lives.

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