Listen Live
St. Jude Give Monthly 2024
Praise 104.1
CLOSE

Pregnancy is supposed to be one of the most fulfilling, amazing times of your life, when you truly get to bond with your baby and anticipate the wonderful world of motherhood. Unfortunately, for many women that isn’t the case, due to the presence of physical violence against them. A Bronx woman faced such violence at the hands of her boyfriend, which caused her to lose her unborn baby.

The New York Daily News has the harrowing account of how 30-year-old Bronx resident Liv Abreu managed to survive being stabbed six times by her boyfriend Oscar Alvarez, also 30, while she was 26 weeks pregnant. Sadly, the baby did not survive the trauma and Abreu ultimately miscarried. Abreu was a U.S. Army veteran where she also served as a spokesperson for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and worked as a student assistant helping veterans enrolled at CUNY. She was described as “excited” to be expecting her first child.

Via NY Daily News:

30-year-old Liv Abreu was stabbed six times in the chest and once in the side inside her Walton Ave. home near Yankee Stadium, officials said. The bleeding Abreu, though 26 weeks pregnant, managed to drag herself from the third floor to a neighbor’s apartment one floor below and call for help after the 12:30 a.m. attack.

Abreu, a U.S. Army veteran with the 82nd Airborne Division, was rushed to Lincoln Hospital. The baby died there, and she was listed in critical but stable condition. “She was so excited about the baby, both of them were,” said stunned neighbor Gloria Lambert, 52. “This was going be their first. “She was showing,” Lambert added. “She seemed so happy.”

Live-in boyfriend Oscar Alvarez, 30, surrendered around 4 a.m. to police at Transit District 11, improbably claiming the multiple stabbing was an “accident,” sources said. Alvarez, after questioning by police, was charged with attempted murder, assault with intent to cause serious phyiscal injury, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. The suspect was taken to central booking prior to his arraignment, police said. He initially fled the scene in his girlfriend’s 2004 Jeep Cherokee SUV, sources said. The Jeep was found abandoned just a block from their home, and cops recovered a knife from the bloody crime scene, sources said.

This deadly practice of violence against pregnant women is unfortunately nothing new, but has increased within the last few years, as there have been dozens of stories about women being physically abused, losing their babies and even being killed while pregnant.

Such a disturbing trend caused us here at Hello Beautiful to do a little research regarding pregnant women and abuse—and the results are shocking. A current 2018 report from BMJ Journal found that 4.3% of pregnant women admitted to experiencing domestic violence while they were pregnant.

The report garnered its findings from a study compiled of accounts from 33,000 pregnant women from various ethnicities and backgrounds who gave birth in the 10-year period between 2006 to 2016. The study also concluded that among the 4.3% of women who said they experienced violence while pregnant, those who were expecting an additional child instead of their first said they experienced violence more often.

Dealing with domestic violence while pregnant is of course extremely stressful and harmful to your baby, but it can have a lasting impact on the mother. Mental health professionals have consistently linked domestic violence during pregnancy to depression, anxiety and thoughts of self-harm and/or maternal suicide.

If you are experiencing domestic violence as an expectant mother or in general, or know someone who is, visit The National Domestic Violence Hotline where there are a host of resources on a local and national level that can help you.

 

Check out today’s Top Stories here:

R. Kelly Accuser Sues Entertainer For Allegedly Giving Her An STD

5 Ways Running Taught Me To Break Through The Wall Of Life’s Challenges

Pregnant Bronx Woman Stabbed By Boyfriend, Loses Baby  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com