Violence against Women and Its Impact on Their Reproductive Health and Child Outcomes

Maitreyi B. Das, World Bank Group
Afra R. Chowdhury, World Bank Group

“Low demand” for maternal health services is an issue in the public health system. A number of cultural and behavior factors for low demand have been implicated in the literature, but less attention has been given to domestic violence as a catalyst. In this paper, we use data from the 2005 National Family Health Survey to analyze the association between domestic violence and demand for antenatal services and for three other indicators of reproductive health outcomes: tetanus injection before birth, iron supplements in pregnancy, and ever having a terminated pregnancy. We also investigate the association between domestic violence and child outcomes by looking at whether the child at last birth was stunted. Using multivariate logistic regression, we find violence against women has a significant association with low demand for antenatal services and the other three indicators of reproductive health, as well as with child health outcomes.