STARTLING statistics about domestic abuse beginning during pregnancy have been validated by a charity that tackles in Worcestershire and surrounding counties.

Research by the For Baby’s Sake Trust showed that more than half of people who had been in abusive homes as a child went on to report a partner behaving abusively in their adult lives.

The charity surveyed more than 2,000 people last month and some 40 per cent said abuse had started to occur during pregnancy or in the first two years of a child’s life.

West Mercia Women’s Aid, which runs three refuges and outreach services in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire, acknowledged the correlation and suggested it could be explained by a baby changing the dynamics of a relationship.

“It is our experience as a specialist domestic abuse organisation that abuse is likely to escalate when a woman is pregnant,” said Sue Coleman, chief executive of West Mercia Women’s Aid.

“This is often a sign that the perpetrator feels that there is now a part of the woman’s life that is less under their control and therefore they take action to compensate.

“It can of course then extend beyond the birth of the child when there is stiff competition for the woman’s attention.”

The idea behind For Baby’s Sake Trust commissioning the research is to help raise awareness of the scale of domestic abuse among expectant and new parents and to enable them to receive the support they need.

Worryingly, only one in 10 of these parents said they received professional help at the time.

Two fifths (40 per cent) said they did not feel able to seek help and a third said they did not know where to look for help.

Amanda McIntyre, chief executive of the For Baby’s Sake Trust, said: “This research really brings home why it is so important we give new parents the support they need to break the cycle of domestic abuse and give their babies a better start in life.

“Raising a baby can be an amazing, positive and life-changing experience but it can also be a real challenge, particularly if the parents have had a traumatic childhood or are in an abusive relationship.

“This isn’t inevitable, there is another way and we have a duty to give these parents the support they need to break the cycle of domestic abuse and give their babies the best possible start in life.”