Counseling may cut risk of drinking in pregnancy
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Women who drink often and fail to use reliable birth control are at high risk of drinking during pregnancy. But a new study suggests that just a few counseling sessions can reduce those odds.
Researchers found that five brief counseling sessions helped high-risk women to both reduce their drinking and start using effective birth control.
At 9-month follow-up, they were twice as likely as women who did not receive counseling to cut out “risky drinking,” start using a reliable form of contraception, or do both.
“What we were able to do was to help the women become aware that they were at risk, and subsequently they made decisions to change their risk behavior,” R. Louise Floyd, a researcher with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement.
She and her colleagues report the findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Alcohol is known to cause birth defects, harming fetal growth and development, including development of the brain and nervous system. The most severe consequence is fetal alcohol syndrome, a lifelong condition that causes physical and mental disabilities.
The 830 women in the current study did not use reliable birth control and they either drank often—at least eight drinks per week—or reported binge-drinking, which was defined as five or more drinks in a day.
More than half of the women met the clinical criteria for alcohol dependence, more than 90 percent used illicit drugs and more than 70 percent smoked. The average age of the women was 30 years old, almost half were African American and 51 percent had never been married. Fifty-five percent had annual incomes of less than $20,000.
Half of the women were randomly assigned to attend four counseling sessions on drinking and pregnancy and one on birth control options. The rest received educational brochures on drinking and women’s health.
Of the 830 women who began the study, 593 (71 percent) completed the final interview after 9 months.
Women in the counseling group substantially cut their binge-drinking, Floyd’s team reports. In addition, 56 percent were using effective birth control, versus 39 percent of women in the comparison group.
None of the women in the study were planning on becoming pregnant, but about half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, Floyd noted.
Drinking during the first couple months of pregnancy, when many women are unaware they’re pregnant, exposes the fetus to alcohol when major organ systems are first developing, Floyd said.
Therefore, experts advise women who may become pregnant to abstain from drinking—including women who are sexually active but don’t consistently use reliable birth control.
There is no known safe level of drinking during pregnancy.
SOURCE: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, January 2007.
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