title: Unintended pregnancy and intimate partner violence around pregnancy in a population-based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Intimate partner violence (IPV) and unintended pregnancy are public health issues that can affect the health and well-being of women and their children. However, the relationship between IPV and women's ability to control their fertility has not been adequately explored.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the association between unintended pregnancy and emotional or physical violence perpetrated by partners around pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population-based study was undertaken, recruiting women (n=779) at the hospital obstetric departments and gathering social and family data. IPV was diagnosed by using the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA). Data were gathered by trained midwives in 15 public hospitals in southern Spain and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The pregnancy was reported to be unintended by 118 (15.1%) of the study population. Unintended pregnancy was significantly associated with: physical and/or emotional IPV around pregnancy, age, marital status, cohabitation, educational level, and employment status. After adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, emotional IPV around pregnancy was significantly associated with an unintended pregnancy (AOR=2.5; 95% CI=1.5-4.3). Being in a non-committed relationship was a risk factor (AOR=3.5; 95% CI=1.8-6.1) and being in employment a protective factor (AOR=0.4; 95% CI=0.2-0.8) for an unintended pregnancy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Women who report an unintended pregnancy may be experiencing emotional IPV. The risk of emotional IPV is higher if women reporting an unintended pregnancy are in a committed relationship, married, or in employment. A better understanding of the relationship between unintended pregnancy and violence can aid midwives about potential reproductive health risk factors associated with abuse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Spain. Electronic address: stella@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martin-de-las-Heras
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Jaen, Spain.
authors.forename: Casilda
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Velasco
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan de Dios
authors.initials: Jde D
authors.lastname: Luna
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Anthropology, University of Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Aurelia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000066511:Intimate Partner Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011247:Pregnancy; D049168:Pregnancy, Unplanned / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D065840:Protective Factors; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emotional abuse; Intimate partner violence; Mistiming pregnancy; Pregnancy; Unwanted pregnancy