Introduction: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is the most commonly reported form of violence against women and it has been reported in all parts of the world. IPV can affect women at any stage of their life but pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to IPV. Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) are likely to be the first point of contact and have a unique opportunity to respond to victims of IPV. They play a key role in addressing IPV by screening and identifying victims, offering information and support, and referring victims to appropriate agencies. There have been very few previous studies of HCPs’ perception of their role and experience of identifying and responding to IPV or of their knowledge, attitudes and practice in Thailand.
Purpose: To explore the perception of Thai HCPs about their role and their experiences regarding the identification of and responses to IPV, and to better understand the barriers and facilitators which affect this.
Design and Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was adopted. A quantitative survey using adapted PREMIS questionnaire was conducted with 188 Thai HCPs in Burirum province, Thailand. Qualitative interview were conducted with nurses who were selected purposively based on their experiences of identifying and responding to IPV during pregnancy.
Findings: The findings indicate that Thai HCPs had poor knowledge regarding IPV during pregnancy. There were misconceptions among the Thai HCPs’ knowledge about the leading cause of IPV during pregnancy and they lacked knowledge of law relating to IPV. Most of the participants reported a positive attitude towards identifying and responding to pregnant women who might be subjected to IPV. Nevertheless, the reported identification rate was low among both the survey and the interview participants. All of the interviewees reported that they did not routinely ask pregnant women about IPV, they asked only women who showed signs of being abused. Interestingly, the findings showed that the interviewees used 2Q as guide for asking about IPV, which had not been reported by any previous studies.
Conclusion and Recommendations: Most participants had positive attitude towards IPV identification and response among pregnant women and perceived that IPV identification was their responsibility. However, further education, IPV training, clear policies of IPV management and organisational support is needed to enable them to identify and respond to all pregnant women about IPV.
