How closely are we tied to our primative relatives? We might not think too much but there are pointers everywhere to the fact that we have not changed all that much in the last 50,000 years. One particularly unpleasant artifact of our primitive selves in the increase in risk of violence from their partners that women experience when they are pregnant. Sadly as many as 40% of women experience violence from their partner during pregnancy and for many this is the first time their partner has been violent.

For most women this is immensely confusing and upsetting. At this time where, more than at other times, they feel that they can command some degree of protection and safety from their partners they are the most vulnerable.

Rebecca L. Burch and Gordon G. Gallup Jr., in the current edition of Journal of Family Violence suggest that this phenonemon harks back to our most primitive of emotions. They say

Women endure pregnancy and childbirth, and as a result are certain of their relationship to offspring. However, because of internal fertilization men can rarely be certain that their children are actually their own. Unless the man consistently monitors his partner, or isolates her from other men, there is always a possibility, because of rape or infidelity, that the children she bears are not his.

This uncertainty can eat at the insecure man. Doubts of his paternity fester in his mind and he starts to see innocent and harmless events through the distorted lens of his jealousy.

the pregnancy, instead of serving as a marker of his own reproductive fitness, raises doubts about paternity and suspicions of infidelity. A man who thought he had reason to question his partner’s fidelity would also be more inclined not to invest in and possibly neglect the child once it is born, or even physically or psychologically abuse that child. In fact, some accounts taken from battered pregnant women suggest that their partner suspected that he was not the child’s father, regardless of actual paternity

All of this harks back to our primal days when survival of your genes was such a risky business that wasting precious effort in raising the fruits of another man's loins was completely intolerable.

Tut tutting and saying how terrible it all is or denying our animal past does nothing to help protect women. Understanding the risks that they face from their male partners at this most vulnerable time is critical for their wellbeing.

If you wish to read more on this fascinating and somewhat disturbing subject you can find the full article here but be aware you will need to pay $25 to read it.