Authors

1 MSc, Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Department of Midwifery, College of Medicine, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran.

2 PhD, Midwifery and Reproductive Health Research Center, Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

3 Department of Forensic Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

4 Department of Basic Sciences, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

 
Background
 
Due to the prevalence of domestic violence and its effect on women's health, especially during breastfeeding, this study was conducted to investigate the factors associated with physical domestic violence during breastfeeding in Iranian women.
 
Materials and Methods
 
This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed through multi-stage sampling on 549 women who had infants up to 6 months of age during breastfeeding, and referred to health centers affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. For data collection demographic, obstetrics, breastfeeding status and WHO physical domestic violence questionnaires were used. Data analysis was performed with SPSS software version 19.0.
 
Results
 
The results showed that the rate of physical violence was 35.7%, and 5.8% of women experienced physical violence more than 5 times during breastfeeding. In logistic regression, husband’s occupation (p <0.014), women’s education (p <0.007), household income (p <0.003), independent income of women (p <0.002), infant gender (p <0.002), husband’s support in breastfeeding (p <0.035), exclusive breastfeeding (p <0.001) were associated with physical domestic violence during breastfeeding.
 
Conclusion
 
Some socioeconomic characteristics such as education, occupation of women and their husband, age of husband, duration of the marriage, infant gender, household income, and the independent income of women were related to physical violence during breastfeeding. It is necessary to identify women exposed to violence to prevent its complications, especially during breastfeeding.
 

Keywords