A pregnancy also tends to deprive abusers of the isolation they count on to be able to control and hurt their partners with impunity. Pregnant women have to leave the house often for checkups. "This can be threatening to an abusive spouse who may feel he's losing control over the situation and that his actions may come to light during an examination," said Lisa James of the Family Violence Prevention Fund.

Reflected in general research on abuse are indications that domestic violence is a frequent and increasingly common cause of maternal injury. Many women who experience violence during pregnancy have a history of reported abuse before pregnancy, though battery often begins -- or intensifies -- during pregnancy, experts say. James says pregnancy is often the point at which the emotionally or verbally abusive partner escalates to physical violence. Experts say once a victim is pregnant, beatings tend to change from general body blows to target the face and abdomen.

Sherrie, who asked that her last name not be used, was abused by a 17-year-old boyfriend who beat her badly while she was pregnant.

"I was young. I had zero experience. I didn't have anyone to talk to," she says. "I got caught up in everything he said -- that I was worthless, that no one else was going to like me. It was confusing. I kept trying to figure out what was going on in my head," says Sherrie, who now helps counsel victims of domestic violence.

"It got worse during the pregnancy. There was a point I really wanted to leave him."

But when Sherrie, 18 at the time and four months pregnant, left her boyfriend, he began to stalk her. He finally confronted her at a supermarket in their small Northern California hometown, and they argued as she shopped for groceries. Suddenly, he picked up a heavy bag of potatoes and slammed her in the back, knocking her to the floor.

"Everybody around us stopped and stared, but nobody helped me," recalled Sherrie. "I thought, 'Gosh, I'm in this alone."

She fled to her car, but her boyfriend wrestled the keys from her, grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground. "My feet were dangling in the air," she says. "People watched us in the parking lot but no one helped. He threw me in the back of the car and drove off. He was crying and apologizing for hitting me. He said he didn't want me to leave."

He parked outside his parents' home, and disabled the engine so Sherrie couldn't drive off. But she fled on foot to a gas station, where an attendant hid her and called police.

Her boyfriend was initially charged with kidnapping and assault and served half of a three-year sentence. They continued to talk and see each other, but Sherrie's pregnancy and the birth of their daughter was the beginning of the end of their relationship. "I wanted to take care of her." Eventually, she decided, "This is what happened to me. It's not going to happen again."

There has been no public indication that Scott Peterson abused Laci Peterson. On the contrary, her family initially reported that Laci was happy in her marriage and thrilled at the prospect of adding a child to the family. But a month after his wife disappeared, Scott -- who says he was fishing the day Laci vanished -- admitted he was having an affair with a local woman at the time his wife vanished. Last month he sold off Laci's Land Rover, and referred to his wife in the past tense -- then quickly corrected himself -- in an ABC interview with Diane Sawyer.

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Researchers like Krulewitch, as well as domestic violence experts and activists, believe that the discovery and analysis of the homicide-pregnancy link through statistics could bring a new awareness in the medical community about the cause of death and injury associated with pregnancy. Up until now, medical literature has focused almost exclusively on medical complications related to pregnancy, such as high blood pressure and toxemia, that could be fatal.

In an editorial accompanying a recent study on the pregnancy-homicide link, Victoria Frye of the Center of Gender and Health Equity points out that traditionally ignored "social causes" as well as medical causes of maternal death provide important clues to solving pregnancy problems. She concludes: "Pregnancy-associated death represents a largely preventable source of premature mortality among young women in the United States and devastates the children, families, and communities left behind."

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