SPECIALLY-trained health staff are helping to identify pregnant Notts women who are victims of domestic abuse.
Midwives working for Nottingham's hospitals have been using the skills over the past year to spot signs women are facing violence and mental abuse.
The scheme is designed to stop victims suffering in silence and directs them to help from support services and in some cases police.
The training by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has also already led to staff spotting some pregnant women who have walked in to A and E at the Queen's Medical Centre with injuries from abuse.
It is being led by specialist midwife Amanda Lunn, who said: "It's something the NHS should have been doing for a long time.
"We know there have been women that have been killed by their partners or seriously injured by their partners – emotionally and physically.
"If we can do something to prevent that then we should do so – everything in our power."
Midwives have been trained to ask pregnant women routinely if they are being abused, and tell them where they can get the right help.
The numbers of pregnant women in Notts identified as victims of abuse so far through the scheme is about the same as the national figure of four to ten per cent, Ms Lunn said.
With around 10,000 babies born a year across the trust's area of Nottingham city, Rushcliffe, Broxtowe and Gedling, this equates to roughly 400 to 1,000 pregnant women a year experiencing domestic abuse in some form in that area.
Ms Lunn added: "Abuse during pregnancy just shouldn't happen. Pregnancy is the happiest time for a family.
"You can never tell, never predict what kind of woman will be a victim."
In January a Notts County Council report said almost a third of women in the county will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.
And pregnant women made up more than 10 per cent of survivors of domestic violence in some parts of Notts.
Ms Lunn added some men begin abusing pregnant partners because they think wives or girlfriends are paying more attention to the baby than them.
Val Lunn, chief executive of Women's Aid Integrated Services, said: "This is a really important move – for many people the last thing they expect is for domestic violence to start in pregnancy.
"Everyone needs to work to build an environment where women are asked the question about abuse."
She added a similar scheme called the Iris Project in Nottingham city is helping GPs to identify women who are victims of abuse.
Chris Cutland, the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Notts, said: One of the biggest cases of fetal death is actually domestic violence in pregnancy.
"The feedback is that many women really do want to be asked the question by health staff in this way because being asked gives them the chance to talk about it."
