Is Domestic Violence Related to Early Child Mortality? Evidence from North India

Introduction Studies have showed that domestic violence does not stop during pregnancy(Norton et al. 1995), and may be even aggravated or initiated(Webster, Sweett and Stolz 1994). The adverse consequences of violence during pregnancy on birth outcomes have been well documented(Newberger et al. 1992; Petersen et al. 1997). These studies, however, predominately examined the effect of domestic violence on low birth weight(LBW) (Bullock and McFarlane 1989; Lipsky et al. 2003; McFarlane, Parker and Soeken 1996; Murphy et al. 2001; Valladares et al. 2002), preterm labor (Berenson et al. 1994; Cokkinides et al. 1999; Huth-Bocks, Levendosky and Bogat 2002; Lipsky et al. 2003; Rachana et al. 2002), and miscarriage(Huth-Bocks et al. 2002). Very limited information is available on the effect of violence on perinatal and neonatal deaths(Curry, Perrin and Wall 1998; Janssen et al. 2003; Lipsky et al. 2003), and its long-term effect on child survival.