The effects of domestic violence on the physical and mental health of survivors are well-known and often leave women with feelings of depression, flashbacks and even post-traumatic stress disorder.
But a new local study has revealed that intimate partner violence (IPV) against pregnant women not only affects their emotional health but can be detrimental to the development of the unborn baby’s brain.
Preventing or quickly acting to help women escape domestic violence may be an effective way of supporting healthy brain development in children.
— Dr Lucy Hiscox, from the department of psychology at the University of Bath
Researchers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Bath analysed brain scans of 143 South African infants whose mothers had been subjected to intimate partner violence, including emotional, physical, sexual abuse or assault, during pregnancy.
Most of the brain MRI scans were taken when infants were about three weeks old, suggesting any changes to the brain are likely to have developed inside the womb.
The study, published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience journal, found that maternal exposure to IPV during pregnancy is associated with alterations in brain structure in infants. This was evident even when the researchers took into account maternal alcohol use and smoking throughout pregnancy as well as pregnancy complications.
The study also showed the effects of IPV exposure may differ by the baby’s sex. For girls, their mother’s exposure to IPV during pregnancy was linked to a smaller amygdala, an area of the brain involved in emotional and social development. For boys, IPV exposure was instead associated with a larger caudate nucleus, an area of the brain involved in multiple functions including the execution of movement, learning, memory, reward and motivation.
While previous studies have looked at the impact of maternal stress in pregnancy and its impact on children’s mental development, this is the first research to examine domestic abuse. Researchers suggest these early changes to brain structures may explain why children whose mothers experience high levels of stress during pregnancy are more likely to have psychological issues in childhood or later life.
Sex differences in brain development may also help explain why girls and boys often develop different mental health problems. Both structures are crucial for emotion regulation and cognitive control.
But researchers cautioned one of the limitations of the study was that it did not analyse emotional and cognitive development in children.
Lead researcher Dr Lucy Hiscox, from the department of psychology at the University of Bath, said the latest findings were a call to act on the three Rs of domestic violence awareness: recognise, respond and refer. “Preventing or quickly acting to help women escape domestic violence may be an effective way of supporting healthy brain development in children.”
Co-author Prof Kirsty Donald, a paediatric neurologist and head of the division of developmental paediatrics at UCT, said: “Strategies that help identify and support pregnant mums for multiple potential risks to their unborn babies will require an integrated health system approach and should be considered a public health priority.”
The children involved in this study are now aged between eight and nine, and follow-up research is testing whether the differences in brain structure seen at three weeks of age persist, or alter, as they age.
Researchers said these findings “have important implications for understanding whether antenatal maternal stress via IPV exposure contributes to a sex bias in cognitive, emotional and behavioural disorders often observed in childhood”.
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