Women’s expectations of healthcare providers in the context of reproductive abuse in Australia

Abstract

Reproductive abuse is a poorly understood form of violence against women. It is defined as a deliberate attempt to interfere with or control a women’s reproductive choices and is usually perpetrated by a male intimate partner. Reproductive abuse is associated with a range of poor health outcomes for women, increasing the likelihood that they will visit a healthcare provider. Despite this, there is a dearth of evidence to inform best practice in health settings, particularly research that highlights the voices of survivors. Qualitative studies to date have focused on intimate partner or sexual violence more broadly, yet it is likely that reproductive abuse presents its own nuance in terms of a supportive response. In this paper, we address this gap by reporting qualitative data from 14 women who self-identified as survivors of reproductive abuse. Findings suggest that healthcare providers have an important role to play in responding to reproductive abuse, focusing on taking the problem seriously, reinforcing that the behaviour is wrong, asking about other forms of violence and addressing women’s needs and priorities for contraception and reproductive autonomy. This study has important implications for the development of best practice guidelines for healthcare providers responding to reproductive abuse in female patients.

Keywords:

• Reproductive health
• sexual violence
• domestic violence
• women
• health services

Acknowledgements

We thank all the women in the study as well as the participating hospital for supporting this work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest, financial advantage or benefit.

Notes

1 Figure 1 is reproduced with permission from SAGE and the Safer Families Centre for Research Excellence. Full citations are as follows: Tarzia, L., Wellington, M., Marino, J. & Hegarty, K. (2018) ‘“A huge, hidden problem”: Australian Health Practitioners’ Views and Understandings of Reproductive Coercion’. Qualitative Health Research (Online first). DOI: 10.1177/1049732318819839; and Tarzia, L. (2018) ‘How can we improve the health system's response to reproductive coercion in the Australian context?’ Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, Discussion Paper #1.  Available from: https://www.saferfamilies.org.au/discuss/.