Women's strategies for managing domestic violence during pregnancy: a qualitative study in Iran

Plain Language Summary Domestic violence during pregnancy threatens the health of the mother and the fetus. Mothers who experience domestic violence often use several strategies to decrease the violence. This study sought women's experiences in managing domestic violence during pregnancy. 13 women who experienced perinatal domestic violence, one daughter, one husband and 24 specialists as well as two focus group discussions with attendance of 20 abused mothers were interviewed in Mashhad in the north east of Iran. The results showed abused mothers used escape strategies and situation improvement strategies for managing domestic violence. Mostly abused mothers used emotion oriented strategies such as escape strategies for managing violence. These strategies included of concealment, passive dysfunctional behaviors and neutral behaviors. Some mothers with regard to individual decision-making and individual abilities tried to improve their situation by active self-regulation, protecting family privacy and help seeking. The results of these various strategies vary from reducing domestic violence to not changing the intensity of the violence or intensifying the perinatal domestic violence. In conclusion: inappropriate strategies against domestic violence could be threatening for fetal and maternal safety and appropriate strategies should be considered in perinatal education. Understanding the experience of managing domestic violence among abused pregnant women is essential to design evidence based domestic violence prevention strategies and programs.