Open AccessChildhood abuse and later worries about the baby's health in pregnancy
Author(s) -
Eide Jorid,
Hovengen Ragnhild,
Nordhagen Rannveig
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1600-0412
pISSN - 0001-6349
DOI - 10.3109/00016349.2010.526180
Subject(s) - medicine , pregnancy , sexual abuse , odds ratio , physical abuse , population , cohort study , obstetrics , poison control , injury prevention , environmental health , genetics , pathology , biology
Objective . To explore the associations between sexual and/or physical abuse in childhood and worries about the baby's health in pregnancy. Design . Cross‐sectional questionnaire study. Setting . Norwegian prospective pregnancy cohort. Sample . An original sample of 58,139 pregnancies (1999–2006) covering about 43% of the pregnant population. Methods . Two self‐reported questionnaires in the 17th and 30th week of gestation were merged with data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Associations between physical and/or sexual childhood abuse and worries about the baby's health were assessed with multiple logistic regression analyses. Main outcome measures . Strong worries about the baby's health in the 30th week of gestation among women with experience of childhood abuse. Results . Women who reported being exposed to physical or sexual childhood abuse or a combination of the two were at increased risk of strong worries about the baby's health compared to women who had not been similarly exposed (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26–2.08; adjusted OR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.03–1.64; adjusted OR = 2.10, 95% CI 1.68–2.62, respectively). Marital status, adult abuse, pelvic pain, quality of antenatal care, self‐efficacy and previous birth experiences were also associated with concern about the baby's health. Conclusions . There were significant associations between physical and/or sexual childhood abuse and strong concern about the baby's health. Worries about the baby's health are complex and associated with many elements of risk.