Domestic Abuse or Intimate Partner Violence are familiar concepts that draw a very distressing picture. But envisioning the abuse happening to a pregnant woman just worsens the image tenfold. Andrew Campbell, this course’s key resource, took it upon himself to collect data, analyze and understand this truly horrible phenomenon he aptly called Pregnant Partner Violence (PPV).

Andrew is the CEO and Founder of Campbell Research and Consulting. His own experience with domestic violence was the impetus that propelled his interest in the field. Using cutting edge data analysis, he provides a unique perspective as he trains and educates agencies on domestic violence and its associated risk to adults, children and animals, as well as effective community response to physical and emotional violence. He is a trailblazer in his field for using actual law enforcement data in his researches.

Topics that Andrew delved into this webinar include:

• Andrew’s personal experience as a child exposed to domestic violence.
• The insufficient data and statistics on domestic violence and some examples of domestic violence incidents and reports showing the type of data that isn’t captured.
• The concept of Pregnant Partner Violence and it’s working definition.
• The most common causes of maternal and infant mortality and statistics linking these to PPV.
• The prevalence of PPV and how abuse aggravates during pregnancy.
• The higher likelihood of physical and emotional abuse than the occurrence of routinely screened pregnancy health conditions.
• The risk factors leading to Pregnant Partner Violence including a history of violence and victimization, relationship issues, limited income, and lack of a healthy support system and resources.
• The different obstacles that victims encounter in the rural and urban setting keeping them from reporting to authorities and leaving the abusive conditions.
• The risks that victims of PPV tend to face while pregnant that include limited access to finances, social isolation, use/abuse of substances in an effort to self-medicate, mental illness, toxic stress and other health issues, and how these impact the mother as well as the emotional and cognitive development of the child inside the womb.
• Pregnancy outcomes that include the likelihood of choosing to abort the pregnancy or birth risks as pre-term birth, low birth weight, hemorrhage, and other complications during delivery.
• Risks after birth that includes weakened bond between mother and child, psychological and mental issues, and low quality of life.
• How PPV can manifest on the child in the form of behavioral problems and strained relationships.
• The importance of conducting PPV screening to expecting mothers and doing this early and repeatedly if needed.
• Findings of Andrew’s IPV study that exhibit how widespread IPV is.
  • The portion of IPV victims who were abused while they were pregnant.
  • The demographics and characteristics of the victims and the abusers.
  • The link between PPV and pet abuse.
  • The overlapping violent crimes that tend to exist in a specific area that provides spatial indicators of risks for PPV.
• Andrew’s efforts to provide more resources to better inform involved agencies on the realities of Pregnant Partner Violence.
• Questions raised were on the likelihood of children being abused following PPV and employing the help of religious institutions.

Audience Comments

• “Great webinar. Good real-life examples.” — Evelyn
• “PPV is more prevalent than I thought.” — Angela
• “The presenter seemed very knowledgeable about the topic and I appreciate that he worked so hard to fit so much information into the short time we had.”  — Jaclyn
• “Most valuable thing was the increased knowledge in an area that as Andrew put it is vastly not reported and lumped in with all domestic violence statistics. Great information.” — Matthew