Saving Mothers' Lives: - Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland

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Chapter 13: Domestic abuse
The mothers who were murdered
In this triennium the deaths of 19 pregnant or recently delivered women who were murdered were reported
to this Enquiry. In the opinion of many assessors the death of another woman who died from obstetric
haemorrhage was most likely directly related to the violence her partner had infl icted on her body. There
are undoubtedly other deaths that have occurred and not been reported to this Enquiry so this is a
minimum fi gure. Also because some of the cases in this Report are still sub judice it is not possible to
obtain or give details of the exact circumstances, but the general lessons to be learnt from those cases that
were available for assessment underline the need for vigilance, especially when there may be a high index
of suspicion.
Fifteen of these women were already known to their local social services departments and nine had
previous children in care. Three were sex workers and two others had recently been in prison. An
extremely young pregnant schoolgirl, who was an occasional drug user and sex worker, was found raped
and murdered in the local park whilst in the care of her local social services department. The care she had
received from her teenage pregnancy midwife had been exemplary.
The ages of the women who died ranged from under 16 to their mid forties. Fourteen were White, four
were Indian or Bangladeshi and the others were from a variety of other countries. Five could not speak
English and in all cases the husbands acted as interpreters. In one other case however, the woman
translated for her husband but still did not reveal her long standing history of abuse.
All of the women who were murdered also already had at least two of the identifi able risk factors of
domestic abuse shown in Box 13.2, but none were referred for help or advice. Table 13.1 confi rms previous
fi ndings that women who suffer from domestic abuse fi nd it very hard to attend for regular and timely
antenatal care. More than 80% of women who died from Direct or Indirect causes either booked after fi ve
months of pregnancy or received little or no antenatal care.
Table 13.1
Characteristics of the antenatal care received by women who were murdered or known to be suffering domestic
abuse; United Kingdom 2003-05.
Type of death Death
in early
pregnancy
Late or non attenders for antenatal care Total number
of deaths of
women*
Booked after 22
weeks or missed
more than four visits
No ante-natal
care
n n n n (%) n (%)
Direct 3 0 0 3 (75) 4 (100)
Indirect 1 6 3 10 (83) 12 (100)
All 4 6 3 13 (81) 16 (100)
Coincidental 2 4 3 9 (69) 13 (100)
Late deaths 0 15 2 17 (41) 41 (100)
Total 6 25 8 39 (56) 70 (100)
* Total number of deaths of women who were murdered or known to be suffering domestic abuse.
All