Empowering Pregnant Women in Lima, Peru

Many Peruvian women report experiencing physical or sexual violence in long-term romantic relationships, and studies have identified pregnancy as a time of particularly high risk for victimization. That violence carries risks for both mother and child during pregnancy and postpartum. 

The Ford Program is adapting an intervention program now being piloted in South Bend, Ind., and Memphis, Tenn., for use in the capital of Lima. The Pregnant Moms’ Empowerment Program addresses how intimate partner violence affects mental health and pregnancy in five group therapy sessions. 

Ford is collaborating with local agencies in Lima to make the program culturally and contextually relevant for women there, and will evaluate its success through a mixed-method study that includes qualitative interviews and a randomized control trial to measure quantitative physical and mental changes in participants’ health.

Partners: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Holy Cross Instituto de Pastoral de la Familia (INFAM), Building Resilience Against Violence Exposure (BRAVE) Lab, Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae