Phenomenographic study of women's experiences of domestic violence during the childbearing years.

Much of the domestic violence and abuse literature contains reports of quantitative research approaches that quantify the experience, identify those at risk, and recommend interventions. Although important, these approaches often fail to describe the experience and understanding from the perspective of and in the language used by women who have experienced abuse. This article reports a phenomenographic study of six women's understanding of their experiences of domestic violence during their childbearing years, the time period associated with pregnancy and the first twelve months after birth. The women described domestic violence as being experienced as a loss of self, being controlled and destruction. This report presents the women's views of domestic violence as a complex and damaging phenomenon that is experienced by them in a number of qualitatively different ways.