Paper
Saturday, 22 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Stress and Healthcare Needs of Women
Pregnancy Following Partner Rape: A Major Problem Hidden in a Dark Closet
Judith M. McFarlane, DrPH, College of Nursing, Texas Woman's University, Houston, TX, USA
Learning Objective #1: Explore effective strategies for collaborative clinical practice to better address the health needs of women raped by their intimate partner.
Learning Objective #2: Integrate knowledge about the health disparities of women survivors of rape-related pregnancy into our education, clinical, and research models of practice.
             Unequal power relations between men and women often cause unwanted pregnancy. Some seven to 48 percent of adolescent girls around the world report that their first sexual experience was forced. How often does pregnancy follow partner rape? We do not know. Surveys note that 40 to 50% of abused women are also raped, a rate 4 to 5 times higher than the 9 to 13% reported by women from community and national samples. The percentage of women raped by their intimate partner who also experience a pregnancy following the rape is unknown.            To better describe the characteristics and consequences of rape within intimate relationships a multi-ethnic sample of 100 sexually assaulted women applying for a                  protection order was stratified into women who reported a pregnancy following partner rape (n=20) and women who did not report a pregnancy following rape (n=80). Chi-square tests of independence were used to look at group differences in demographic characteristics. Independent t tests were used to examine differences in severity of physical and sexual abuse as well as post-traumatic stress and depression scores for both groups of women. Agency use of women reporting a pregnancy following rape was described. The outcomes of the pregnancy in terms of elective abortion and live birth were compared for the two groups of women.            Women who reported a pregnancy following rape were more likely to be Hispanic and non-English speaking. The women who reported a pregnancy following rape reported significantly higher post-traumatic stress disorder scores (p=.03), more sexually transmitted infections, a higher frequency of vaginal and rectum bleeding and hematuria. The percentage of elective abortions was higher and live births lower for women raped at conception.  Women raped at conception reported a significantly (p=.004) higher agency use. Strategies to integrate this new knowledge into collaborative clinical practice will be explored.

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