Associations Between Wife-Beating and Fetal and Infant Death: Impressions from a Survey in Rural India
Author(s)
Jejeebhov, Shireen J.
Abstract
Globally, a disturbing profile has begun to emerge on the prevalence and health consequences of violence against women. For example, the World Bank estimates that rape and domestic violence together account for 5 percent of the healthy years of life lost to a woman of reproductive age in developing countries. At a global level, the health burden from gender-based violence against women aged 15-44 is comparable to that posed, in this age group, by HIV, tuberculosis, sepsis during childbirth, cancer, or cardiovascular disease (World Bank, 1993; Heise et al., 1994). Evidence from many countries suggests that pregnant women are no less vulnerable to violence than are other women and that the consequences of violence during pregnancy range from miscarriage to low birth-weight infants to maternal morbidity and mortality.
