About 20,000 women a year tell midwives they are domestic violence victims

Pregnancy and the early postnatal period gives maternity professionals a critical window to intervene, says the For Baby’s Sake charity. Photograph: Andreas Kuehn/Getty Images

About 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse are estimated to be made to maternity services in England every year, analysis has found.

The figures are likely to be an underestimate of the true scale of disclosures, according to experts, highlighting the role maternity professionals play in identifying abuse.