Women Exposed To Violence During Pregnancy



CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

Maternal physical abuse during pregnancy is emerging as the greatest threat to the fetus. Physical abuse--along with its more potent and cheaper derivative "verbal abuse"--is considered to be the most harmful of the physical abuse currently in use in the United States and has received most attention from the researchers. Maternal physical abuse is both social and legal problem. Based on his extensive observations and research on women using drugs during pregnancy, Marwick listed the following neonatal outcomes of physical abuse use: "Infants delivered to mothers who have used physical abuse during pregnancy tend to be shorter and of lower birth-weight and to have smaller head circumferences than infants delivered to drug-free women".(Berger, 1990, 316) Since most drug users tend to be poly-users, the individual effects of each drug are difficult to separate (Marwick, 1998). The heightened frequency of verbal abuse and physical abuse abuse by women of childbearing age, combined with the legal trends toward defining a maternal responsibility for fetal health, has led to a number of actions against pregnant women for drug use. One approach is to use maternal physical abuse during pregnancy as a basis for finding neglect.

The definitive measure of a surveillance system's success is its contribution to improved understanding and prevention of adverse health events. One of the primary objectives of PRAMS is to provide high-quality data that can be used for planning, modifying, and evaluating public health programs and policies to benefit pregnant women, their infants, and their families. The transformation of public health surveillance or research data into usable informa tion can be referred to as translation. PRAMS surveillance data can be incorporated into public health decision making, or translated, in a variety of ways. In this booklet, examples show how PRAMS data have been used by states to:

Set priorities—establish priorities for programs, services, or resources.

Change policies—inform and justify decisions to modify state health policies.

Change programs—modify existing public health programs, develop new programs, or adjust the content of programs.

Identify new resources—support the appropriation of new resources for programs and services.

Each case highlights the crucial role that partnerships play in the successful applica tion of these data. This is demonstrated at the outset of action, when raising the visi bility of an issue is needed, and at the fruition of action when a policy or program is changed or when resources are found to support programs. PRAMS states have used their data to focus on a variety of special maternal and child health issues. Topic areas featured in this publication include unintended pregnancy, tobacco use, violence, prenatal care, folic acid, infant sleep position, and breast-feeding

Hypotheses Confirmed

The hypotheses tested in this study are quite broad and versatile in horizon and scope for instance, in In re Troy D. ( 1989), a California appellate court held that an infant diagnosed as being under the influence of illegal drugs taken by the mother during pregnancy is sufficient to establish a juvenile court's jurisdiction ...