As I write this editorial I have just completed this month's ‘shortlisting’ of articles for the journal. One of the papers chosen discusses the issue of abuse during pregnancy.1 In February the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidelines entitled: Domestic violence and abuse: how health services, social care and the organisations they work with can respond effectively.2 There was also a report in March 2014 that suggests the police response to domestic abuse is not always as good as it could be. This made me think about the issue of domestic abuse more widely. In the UK the cross-government definition of domestic violence and abuse is Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members …