“Children and very young babies can sense the fear in their parent and that has a profound impact … the relationship between the baby and the child’s primary carer, usually the mother, is critical to that child’s development,” she said.
“If the mother is being hurt, the baby — even though it may have been in a different room — will be impacted by the experience of the mother, who is likely to be in shock, experiencing fear, and if it’s an ongoing state, where the violence is embedded in the relationship, that cannot but impact on the baby.