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Hospital's subtle ruse lets pregnant victims of abuse ask for help

A British health centre has come up with an innovative way to reach out to pregnant women who might be trapped in an abusive environment.

An expecting mom-to-be posted an image to Tumblr of a sign she saw in her local health centre, offering an ingenious way to help pregnant women who are experiencing domestic abuse but feel it might be unsafe to reach out on their own.


The poster doesn’t say at which birth centre the photo was taken, but the numbers on the poster direct to the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT). RCHT administers West Cornwall Hospital, St Michael's Hospital (Hayle), Royal Cornwall Hospital, and St Austell Hospital - Penrice Birthing Unit, in Cornwall, in the southwest of the U.K.

The numbers direct callers to Anna Onslow, an independent domestic violence advisor, who works at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. She told the Heath and Wellbeing Show that she meets with victims wherever they feel safest, assesses the risk, and builds a safety plan. That plan can also include victims whose circumstances, such as being pregnant, could prevent hem from just packing up and leaving right away.

“Part of our skill is to work with people who want to leave, but aren’t quite ready yet, to give them a safe exit,”Onslow said.

RCHT reached out to its Facebook followers offering support for victims of abuse, and highlighted the difficulty some people experience in speaking out.

Many people involved in domestic violence find it hard to speak up about their abuse which can include physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and financial abuse from their partner or a family member. Sadly domestic violence is rarely a one off event and tends to get worse and happen more often over time.

Domestic abuse during pregnancy is a significant social issue in Canada as well. According to figures from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 21 per cent of women abused by a partner were assaulted while pregnant. Of the women who were abused, 43 per cent said that the abuse began during the pregnancy. A study from the Middlesex-London Health Unit in Ontario found that one in six pregnant women are abused during pregnancy.