Study Examines Homicide During Pregnancy

N E W   Y O R K, Feb. 15 -- Rochelle Chong's baby was born prematurely in May of 1985 with a shattered joint and an extra layer of skin where she should have had an elbow.

The doctors did DNA testing to determine if the condition was genetic. They also quizzed Chong on what drugs she had taken during her pregnancy, but discovered nothing that could explain the baby's condition, called dislocated bilateral radial head of the right arm.

Eventually, physicians determined the condition occurred in utero and asked Chong if she'd had any accidents during the pregnancy. The mother considered the question carefully — no, none. But there had been kicking and stomping.

Chong, now 38, survived her husbands' beatings, but many women do not.

Black and Blue Before Birth

According to a new study in the Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health, homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant women in the United States. Because of the way deaths are reported in this country, however, the link between homicide and pregnancy often goes unremarked, prompting the American College of Nurse-Midwives to call violent death during pregnancy, "a hidden epidemic."

"What pregnant women do not know," says the organization's director Deanne Williams, "is that instead of facing joyful celebration at the announcement of pregnancy, too many face violent death. We have got to do a better job of identifying this problem and helping the women and their partners not end up with such a horrific outcome."

Researchers reviewed 651 women's autopsy charts from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in the District of Columbia between 1988 and 1996, and found 13 pregnancies among the homicides. During that same period, the D.C. State Center for Health Statistics reported only 21 maternal deaths, all from medical causes, such as hemorrhaging and infection.

But 13 homicides of pregnant women were not reported as maternal deaths. When included in the maternal death data, pregnancy-associated homicides account for 38 percent of the total, according to the study's authors.