Denise Mahoney reports for Here and Now

A survey for the Here and Now programme shows that around half of 72 maternity hospitals questioned said they had failed to impement guidelines published around a year ago by the Royal College of Midwives.

Some 278 hospitals declined to take part in the survey.

The Royal College told the programme it was ashamed it had not been able to monitor the situation and blamed a lack of resources.

Almost three quarters of the hospitals said they gave no formal training to staff on how to identify cases of domestic abuse.

First UK survey

The survey comes as the first nationwide survey of domestic violence against pregnant women begins in the UK.

Dr Susan Bewley: we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg

Dr Susan Bewley, an obstetrician at Guy's and St Thomas' in London, is taking part in the research.

She said she had no reason to think the UK would not follow patterns of abuse in other countries where research has taken place.

This showed the problem could affect between one in 20 and one in five pregnant women.

"We are seeing only the tip of the iceberg," she commented.

Dr Bewley said health staff were not trained to ask questions sensitively in order to identify cases of abuse.

They were also not told what to do with any information about domestic violence if they received it.

Midwives say women will often go to great lengths to hide abuse.

Burns and black eyes

Kath Baker, a midwife at Stepping Hill Hospital in a deprived area of Stockport, said: "A lot of women I see might have burns all over their abdomens, bruises on their arms or black eyes.

"But when you ask them what has happened to them, they say they fell or burnt themselves. They are not willing to acknowledge that they have been abused by their partners."

She estimates that around 80% of the women she sees have suffered domestic abuse at some point in their lives.

Elwen: 'I felt like an animal'

One victim, Elwen, told Here and Now: "I felt like an animal. I was being treated like an animal."

She was subjected to abuse before she became pregnant and thought it would stop afterwards.

But she was wrong. She said the worst thing was not the broken bones and black eyes, but being made to stand out in the rain and having cigarette ends stubbed out on her stomach.

She says maternity staff did not even notice when she failed to turn up for regular checks.

To her, they seemed more interested in her baby than in her health. She eventually miscarried.

Kicked

Twenty-seven-year-old Vicky said her abuse only started after she became pregnant.

She thought it was because her partner felt he "could not offer anything to the child" so he wanted to make sure she lost the baby.

She was kicked in the stomach and thrown against a wall. Her partner also threatened to cut her throat.

A recent report by the British Medical Association, called Domestic abuse: a health care issue?, estimates that a quarter of women suffer domestic abuse.