Postpartum Women’s Lived Experiences of Perinatal Intimate Partner Violence in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A Phenomenological Study Approach

Abstract

Objective

Perinatal intimate partner violence affects the health and safety of postpartum women and their infants. However, it has not been well recognized and addressed in the study setting. Hence, this study aimed to explore postpartum women’s lived experiences of perinatal intimate partner violence and its contributing factors in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Methods

A phenomenological study approach was used to explore postpartum women’s lived experiences of perinatal partner violence from January to March 2020. A total of twenty-two postnatal women and five health extension workers (HEWs) were interviewed. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim in local languages, and then translated into English. Data were analyzed thematically, using deductive and inductive coding. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (CORE-Q) checklist was followed to report the findings.

Results

Results indicated that postpartum women had experienced recurrent violence before, during, and after pregnancy from their husbands, with 16 out of 22 women being subjected to perinatal intimate partner violence. A majority of the participants delineated their exposure to perinatal physical violence next to perinatal psychological violence. Many of the interviewed women noted that violence during pregnancy was exacerbated and increased during postpartum. Moreover, the interviewees revealed that some partners were not only a serious threat to their wives, but also their infants during the postpartum period. Four of the participants stated that their newborns were hit and thrown by their father and became unconscious. Participants linked husbands’ perinatal violence with suspicion about the newborn, male-child preference, partner infidelity and jealousy, contraceptives usage, alcohol consumptions, indifference to shortages on household necessities, improper parenting, and financial problems.

Conclusion

This study highlights that postpartum women are experiencing continuous and severe forms of perinatal IPV in the study setting. Thus, community-level interventions that minimize perinatal partner violence against postnatal women and their infants are needed.

Keywords:

• postpartum women
• perinatal
• violence
• phenomenological
• Ethiopia

Data Sharing Statement

The data, both audio records and transcripts, analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethical Approval and Informed Consent

The ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Addis Ababa University College of Health Sciences with a protocol number of 006/19/SPH. The study followed basic ethical principles of Helsinki declaration for medical research involving in human subjects.⁶⁵ All of the study participants were briefed about aims and procedure of the research and their right to abstain or withdrawal from the study at any time. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant separately. Participants were well informed not to mention a third person’s name during audio recordings including their own respective names. The confidentiality of the collected data was maintained by assigning unique anonymous coding (P-1, P-2, P-3 …). All study information was kept secured and confidential with the first author. All audio recordings and transcribed data was not disclosed to third parties without the consent of the participant. All study participants provided informed consent to have their quotes published. After the interview, participants were given the opportunity to visit a psychiatric nurse if they experienced any psychological discomfort.

Acknowledgment

All authors express their gratitude to the Addis Ababa University College of Health Sciences for providing financial support and ethical approval for this research. We are very grateful to one of our staff, mentors and supervisors, Fikre Enqueselassie, whom we missed suddenly during this manuscript preparation; May his soul rest in perfect peace. We would like to thank the staff of the WCYA department of Wolaita Soddo city for their cooperation and facilitation in arranging eligible study participants. We are indebted to HEWs for genuine support in tracing eligible participants. We are also grateful to all the study participants for sharing their personal information.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed from the conception of topic to data analysis, drafting or revising the article, have agreed on the journal to which the article will be submitted, gave final approval of the version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. Specifically, TL was conceptualized the topic of interest, involved in data collection, transcribed and translated data, conducted data analysis and drafted the manuscript. FE was involved in proposal development, planning the fieldwork and result section. ND: was involved in proposal and interview guides’ development, data analysis and write up and in critical reviewing of manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

Addis Ababa University, College of Health Sciences provided financial support for the data collection. It is a public university in Ethiopia and grants small amounts of money to PhD candidates for data collection. Therefore, the university has no conflicts of interests in this study. No other funding was obtained for the current study.