Abstract:

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the socioeconomic/demography and prevalence of gender-based violence among pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic (ANCC) at University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City, Nigeria.

Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out to study the socioeconomic/demography and prevalence of gender-based violence among pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic at UBTH. To achieve this, questionnaire method was used to collect the necessary data. A self-administered questionnaire with closed ended questions were implored.

Study Limitation: In this study, one of the major constraints is that respondents were only women attending antenatal clinic at University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City, Nigeria. This means that the respondents might not represent the entire Nigerian population of pregnant women and what others might be experiencing in other parts of Nigeria.

Results: It was quite evident that the age range of the respondents was 15-54 years while 25-34 years were the majority of the respondents; age range of 45-54 years were the least. The prevalence of emotional abuse in the study was 22.0%, that of physical abuse was 22.9%, the prevalence of respondents being hit, slapped, kicked or hurt physically during pregnancy was 7.3%. The prevalence of respondents being forced to have sexual activities in the last 12 months was 2.8%. The prevalence of respondents scared of anyone was 2.3%.

Conclusion: The study established the different forms of GBV to include emotional violence, physical violence and sexual violence, amongst others.

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