The association between violence perpetrated by an intimate partner during pregnancy and infant morbidity: comparison of two birth cohorts from Ribeirão Preto (SP) and São Luís (MA)

Abstract

Pregnancy is a very complex period, with delicate conflicts of interest between the mother and the developing fetus. The limitation of the mother's resources and the stimuli received during this period have a great influence on intrauterine development, and this knowledge is a fundamental part of the construct of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). Psychosocial stress is recognized as a type of stimulus with great potential to impact this process, and socioeconomic conditions potentially influence the way this impact happens. Several modalities can generate psychosocial stress, and one of the most prevalent in the world (and in Brazil in particular) is violence. The mechanisms by which this stress acts on the development of the fetus are not fully known, and it is believed that the immune system is importantly affected, being also a mediator of stress actions in other systems. Few studies analyze this relationship in humans, and none of them use violence perpetrated by an intimate partner as a prenatal stressor. Thus, through the analysis of two birth cohorts from two different cities (one in Ribeirão Preto (SP) and one in São Luís (MA)), the present project aims to verify the existence of an association between prenatal violence perpetraded by an intimate partner and infant morbidity, and whether this association is influenced by the socioeconomic context. (AU)