The importance of spirituality in the lives of domestic violence survivors

Women with abusive partners utilize a variety of coping strategies to deal with and heal from the violence and sense of betrayal they have experienced. For many women, their trust in a higher power and the support they receive from their faith community is integral to their healing. Of 151 women interviewed for this study, the majority (97%) noted that spirituality or God was a source of strength or comfort for them. Extent of religious involvement predicted increased psychological well-being and decreased depression. For women of color, greater religious involvement was also related to increased social support. Implications for research and direct services are discussed.     

Danger zone: battered mothers and their families in supervised visitation

Supervised visitation centers (SVCs) have developed rapidly across the United States. Increasingly, courts are restricting contact between abusive intimate partners and their children by ordering visitation or exchanges to occur at SVCs. This article describes some of the key lessons the authors learned over 18 months of planning and then another 18 months of implementation at a SVC developed specifically to serve families for whom domestic violence was their primary reason for referral. The authors have organized their experiences around five major themes: (a) battered women in supervised visitation, (b) how battering continues during supervised visitation, (c) how rules at the SVC evolved over the first 18 months of implementation, (d) the importance of well-trained visit monitors, and (e) the need to embed SVCs within a larger context of coordinated community responses to domestic violence.     

The importance of reciprocity in relationships between community-based midwives and mothers

OBJECTIVE: to explore the emotion work experiences of community-based midwives, focusing on their relationships with clients. DESIGN: a qualitative study using an ethnographic approach. Data were collected via observation, interview and focus groups. SETTING: a National Health Service (NHS) Trust in South Wales, UK. PARTICIPANTS: a purposive sample of 19 NHS community-based midwives, working in different teams and with differing lengths of clinical experience. FINDINGS: relationships between midwives and women varied considerably, and could be the source of emotion work for midwives. A model of midwife-woman relationships is proposed, based on the concept of reciprocity. Four key situations are identified: balanced exchanges, rejected exchanges, reversed exchanges and unsustainable exchanges. Balanced exchanges occur when there is 'give and take' on both sides; these are emotionally rewarding for the midwife. The other exchanges are out of balance, and require emotion work by the midwife. KEY CONCLUSIONS: the concept of reciprocity is a useful analytical tool that enhances understanding of midwife-woman relationships and the emotion work that these may generate. Increased understanding of these issues is important, given the current national and international policy recommendations for health-care professionals to work in partnership with clients. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: the midwife-woman relationship and the factors that affect it need to be explicitly addressed within educational settings, in order to further develop interpersonal and communication skills. In turn, this should enhance the emotional well-being of midwives and the quality of care that women receive. Additional research is needed to further develop and refine the model.     

Editorial: The importance of the postnatal period for mothers,fathers and infant behaviour

Experiencing a miscarriage can be a traumatic event for a woman and her partner. The couple's perceptions of the miscarriage may be influenced by many factors. These include their contact with health care professionals, family, friends, previous experiences, and possibly even their partner's expectations. This paper examines the experience of a miscarriage, reporting results from six women and their partners, all of whom were from ethnic backgrounds. A qualitative approach, employing an in‐depth interview technique was utilized to obtain the data. The paper focuses on the coping strategies, social support and satisfaction with health care among the women and their partners. Factors such as treatment by medical personnel and family and friends were identified as either helping or hindering the experience. Coping with pregnancy loss depends on individual women and their partners, as each couple has different ways of dealing with it. However, a good support network and positive contacts with health care professionals also impact on how well the women and their partners are able to cope with the loss. This needs to be recognized when providing care to women who have experienced a miscarriage so that sensitive health care can be achieved.     

Abuse characteristics and coping resources as predictors of problem-focused coping strategies among battered women

The current study examines the predictors of three types of problem-focused coping strategies (i.e., amount of help seeking, pursuing an order of protection, and staying away from the abuser) among battered women. Predictor variables are categorized as abuse characteristics and three types of coping resources (i.e., personal, material, and social coping resources). Data from the Chicago Women's Health Risk Study (N=478) are used. Results show that enactment of problem-focused coping strategies is associated with amount of abuse, severity, harassment, and power and control tactics. Coping resources such as general health, employment, and social support influence enactment of coping strategies.     

The voices of battered women in India

This study endeavors to give voice to marginalized, understudied women who were abused in India. The study included 90 women who were abused who were seeking help to address violence perpetrated against them by their husbands. A semistructured interview was used to collect data on abuse characteristics, consequences of abuse, and help-seeking behavior. Findings reveal that the vast majority of participants experienced daily abuse that was extremely severe, with 70% reporting they lived under the threat of murder. More than 85% reported needing medical care for their injuries. Respondents in this study sought help from a range of sources; the most effective help was provided by counseling centers and women's shelters. These findings have important implications for clinical practice and social policy.     

The battered women's movement response to children of battered women. A critical analysis

This article presents a critical analysis of the battered women's movement (BWM) response to children of battered women in the US. Following a brief review of progress made in research from an intervention with children of battered women, 3 major issues are examined: 1) the perception of children as ?secondary? victims; 2) woman battering and child abuse; and 3) battering men as fathers. The BWM is doing invaluable work to end children's exposure to violence directed at their mothers and to heal children who were already hurt by witnessing violence in their families. But the BWM can still help more children if it acknowledges these children as primary victims of the violence and treats them as a primary target population. Providing adequate services to children of battered women requires the practitioners involved to address, both in theory and practice, the difficult and complex issues of battered women who abuse their children and of perpetrator's relationships with their children. Furthermore, the BWM needs to coordinate a multisystem community response that attempts to change the society's attitudes toward violence and help victims/survivors of violence within a multitude of relevant social settings.     

The relationship of race to women's use of health information resources

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine, among the general public, the independent effect of race on women's use of health information resources. STUDY DESIGN: A population-based random-digit dialing survey of adult women, aged 18 to 64 years, was conducted between October 1999 and January 2000. Subjects included 509 women (341 white women, 135 black women, and 33 women of other races). The response rate was 66%. The main outcome variable was the use of health information resources (print health or news media, broadcast media, computer resources [Internet], health organizations, organized health events). Logistic regression was used to determine the independent effect of race/ethnicity on the use of different information resources, with an adjustment for age, income, education, and marital status. RESULTS: After the adjustment for socioeconomic factors, black women had <50% odds of using print news media (odds ratio, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.4-0.8), <60% odds of using computer-based resources (odds ratio, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2-0.6), and <70% odds of using health policy organizations (odds ratio, 0.3; 95% CI, 0.2-0.7), compared with white women. CONCLUSION: There is a large racial disparity in women's use of health information resources. Traditional sources that are used to provide patient information may not be effective in certain populations.     

The Framing Safety Project: photographs and narratives by battered women

This article describes the Framing Safety Project that the author developed to do collaborative, community action/education research with battered women about the meaning of safety in their lives. The project is built on the use of participant-generated photographs and photo-elicitation interviews as methods for exploring with women, in support group settings, the meanings of violence in their lives and their approaches to creating safer spaces. Although visual sociologists have used variations of these methods, particularly to study the experiences of children, the author combines them in a uniquely feminist approach that leads from the women's photography and interviews to a community education and action component. The author describes the process of developing and implementing this project with Mexican and South Asian immigrant women and discusses the ways in which its methodological approach serves to amplify the voices of silenced women, and to offer opportunities for community education and social action.     

Young mothers who choose to breast feed: the importance of being part of a supportive breast-feeding community

Objective

to examine factors associated with breast-feeding initiation and duration in young mothers (≤24 years).

Design

a retrospective questionnaire completed between six and 24 months post partum.

Setting

mothers were recruited from local mother and infant groups, nurseries and online mother and infant forums.

Participants

138 mothers aged between 17 and 24 years (mean age 21.93 years)

Measurements and findings

participants completed a retrospective questionnaire about their experience of breast or artificial milk feeding during the first six months post partum. A further 10 mothers who breast fed for at least six months completed a semi-structured interview. Breast feeding for at least six months was positively associated with attending a breast-feeding support group, believing breast feeding to be easy, being part of an environment where breast feeding is normative, and being encouraged to breast feed by others.

Key conclusions

themes raised highlight the importance of viewing breast feeding as the normal way to feed an infant and having others support the mother in this behaviour.

Implications for practice

increasing breast-feeding initiation and duration among this at-risk group is important for both infant and maternal health. Helping mothers to view breast feeding as the norm, creating an environment where breast feeding is accepted, providing professional and peer support, and encouraging the mother to continue breast feeding are important steps in raising breast-feeding rates among younger mothers.