Family violence can affect children even before birth, royal commission told

Children are “exquisitely sensitive” to the suffering of their parents, medical experts have told Victoria’s royal commission into family violence.

Professor Louise Newman, director for women’s mental health at Melbourne’s Royal women’s hospital, and Dr Robyn Miller, a social worker and family therapist, told the commission children could be affected by family violence even before they were born.

Women released hormones in response to the stress of being harmed, Newman said, which could permeate the placenta and affect the baby’s development in utero, with potentially severe consequences for the pregnancy.

They are more likely to have preterm deliveries ... babies can have growth problems in their nervous system and brain, and also be small babies, so potentially vulnerable in terms of their ongoing development,” Newman said.

It made identifying women in high-risk situations during pregnancy essential, she said. Maternal and child health nurses were skilled at being able to engage with complex and challenging families and provided an opportunity to intervene, the commission heard.

“If we could engage fathers at that point there might be a window of opportunity. Most men want to do the right thing by their children,” Miller said. “We must train medical professionals to be attuned to indicators of violence, and how you speak about these things with families makes all the difference.”

Miller described seeing babies just a couple of weeks old fall into a state of “frozen watchfulness” due to being exposed to violence between the parents.

“They only have to hear the voice of the perpetrator and they’re in this dissociative state,” Miller said. “One of the really important things to understand is children and very young babies can sense the fear in their parents. They can smell fear. Children are exquisitely sensitive.”

As they grew older, children often assumed a sense of responsibility for their parents, the commission heard.The first few years of life was the most significant period of brain development, the commission heard. Traumatic experiences during this time could affect a child’s learning ability, memory and attention span.

“I’ve seen kids who have jumped on the backs of their mother as she is being stabbed,” Miller said. “They are active agents in preventing their siblings from harm.”

Newman and Miller said children often had no way of making sense of the turmoil around them, and these experiences left them with traumatic memories. They could suffer severe flashbacks that lasted into adulthood, the commission heard.

“I’ve seen babies with injuries,” Miller said. “I’ve seen children who’ve endured a range of different injuries. The traumatic memories for children are stored differently. They’re like a dog’s breakfast.

“A child can be triggered when they smell something, when they hear dad’s voice raised, when they see that look on their mum’s face, when someone grabs them from behind at school in a game.”

Children often responded by acting out, becoming withdrawn, or both, the commission heard. Their schooling often suffered. As they grew older, they were more likely to become involved in exploitative relationships, and were vulnerable to being manipulated, targeted and groomed for child abuse by outsiders.

In an act of self-preservation, children often sided with the perpetrator, the commission heard. Miller said she had often seen children brainwashed by their fathers.

“Joining with the powerful one, the perpetrator, is often the best way to survive,” Miller said. “Children will often become conscripted into the dynamic which is very disrespectful towards women.”

For every dollar spent on prevention of child harm, $17 could be saved, the commission heard.

Sarah Marsh and Lisa Spiller 
Culled from theguardian