Intimate-Partner Violence and Coping Strategies among Pregnant Women in Keffi LGA, Nasarawa State

Intimate partner violence especially against pregnant women has been identified as a social and public health problem affecting women globally and is considered as a violation of human rights with severe implications to safe motherhood. Despite this, previous studies have largely been skewed towards women with little attention given to the pregnant women. Hence, this study examined the prevalence of intimate partner violence and coping strategies among pregnant women in Keffi. The study was anchored on the Intersectional Feminist theory by Kimberle Crenshaw. The study adopted a mixed-method design involving a survey of 361 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in 4 hospitals in Keffi LGA, Nasarawa State, Nigeria through a multi-stage sampling technique. 8 key informant interviews were also conducted. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics while the qualitative data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Findings shows that intimate partner violence was prevalent at 47.1% among pregnant women attending Ante Natal Clinic (ANC) in the sampled hospitals and this occurs very often as indicated by 80.4% of the participants. In addition, age at marriage was found not to be significantly associated with the experience of IPV among pregnant women [x2 oj =8.165, P<0.05]. Also, results revealed that IPV among pregnant women takes the form of hitting, insults, sexual abuse, threat of death, controlling & domineering, financial denial, and denial of sexual intimacy. In addition, Regarding the effects of IPV on reproductive health outcomes, findings show that 17.6% of respondents have suffered complications during pregnancy due to IPV. 29.4% have lost pregnancy. Also, almost half (49.1%) revealed that they missed ANC, more than half said they were depressed (58.8%) while others lost their infants (23.5%) as a result of abusive partners' behaviours. Finally, pregnant women resort to prayer (39.2%), crying in silence (43.1%), complain to health workers during ANC (5.9%), family/friends 37.3%) separation (39.2%) as coping strategies. The study concludes that intimate partner violence poses a greater challenge to pregnant women. Therefore, it is urgent to sensitize women to speak out in the face of intimate partner violence. Even though they believe in God, appropriate steps should also be taken for the sake of their reproductive health and well-being.