Pregnant women facing 'horrifying' abuse often 'too ashamed to seek help'
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Pregnant women facing abuse such as blows to the stomach or coercive control are often too ashamed to seek help, a project including women at Cork University Maternity Hospital has found.
Some face “horrifying” abuse but believe maternity staff would not know how to help them.
This emerged from a survey carried out as part of a three-year collaboration between Women’s Aid and four hospitals in Cork and Dublin to boost supports.
One woman said she lived in fear of her husband and her pregnancy was “a really hard time, emotionally and physically”.
‘Laura’ said while at first she did not tell anyone, later an outreach worker and medical social worker helped her.
This was “throughout my pregnancy, which was a really hard time, emotionally and physically. They helped me understand that it wasn’t my fault, and I had options”, she said.
She was helped to apply for a domestic violence order, get a solicitor, and attend court.
“I got the order, but my husband kept breaching it, we were still living in fear,” Laura said.
“She encouraged me to call the gardai and even came to the station with me.”
Now mother to a baby boy, she said: “I am still dealing with the ongoing abuse from my husband.
The collaboration also saw specialist training developed for staff and an outreach service set up in Dublin among other developments.
Women’s Aid CEO Sarah Benson said of the outreach service: “I really believe that these situations can save lives when we have that safety net extended as far as possible.”
Women are physically vulnerable during pregnancy.
“If there is physical abuse, often it is targeted directly at the abdomen,” she said.
“People wince when you say that because it is just so horrifying but that is something that happens.”
They took referrals from other areas in hospitals, including emergency and termination of pregnancy services.
“Somebody presenting for multiple terminations can actually be a sign they are in a possibly abusive situation,” she said.
It is already the case women are asked during booking appointments at maternity hospitals if they are being abused.
However, an evaluation of the project, published today on Thursday, found “there were a number of issues with the data” linked to the IT systems.
“CUMH screening rates were very low (30% on average from May 2021 to June 2024),” the evaluation said.
They were told a move to telephone booking appointments had “severely impacted the recorded rate of screening”.
Maria Leahy, manager of social work services there, said listening and believing women experiencing domestic violence is key for them.
The project also identified that in private maternity settings there was “much poorer recording of screening data, screening practices, identification of women” and lower referrals to support compared to public hospitals.
They ran an awareness campaign with posters and leaflets across all 19 maternity units.
Medical social workers reported this led to increased referrals, the evaluation said.