Women are pretty good about avoiding substance abuse while pregnant, but a new report suggests that their alcohol use remains high and that many resume drinking, smoking and using marijuana within three months of their baby's arrival.
The National Survey of Drug Use and Health shows that fewer women drank the closer they got to their delivery date. But 19% still used alcohol in the first trimester, which could be because some didn't know they were pregnant. But the report also cites a 15-year study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noting that the number of women who drink while pregnant remains high and hasn't changed much in that time -- still one in eight women drink some amount of alcohol while pregnant.
After delivery, the study found that 10% of women were binge drinking (five or more drinks within a few hours), 20.4% were smoking cigarettes, and 3.8% were using marijuana. The findings come from surveys of 68,000 women from 2002 to 2007 who were asked about substance abuse in the month before the survey.
Though the study doesn't prove women are resuming substance use after pregnancy as opposed to starting it, the large number of women who were using substances after pregnancy indicates most probably were resuming, says Peter Delany, director of the Office of Applied Studies in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the group that released the report.
The portion of pregnant women using alcohol dropped during pregnancy (19% the first trimester, 7.8% in the second, and 6.2% in the third).
"Women are getting the message and are reducing their drug use across the board when they're pregnant," Delany says. "We need to do better in helping women understand: Not only should you not use while you're pregnant, you should continue not using."
According to the study, 31.9% of women used alcohol within the first three months after childbirth.
The study also found that the number of postpartum women who used drugs and alcohol was significantly less than the number of non-pregnant women who were using substances, except in the case of cigarettes.
The implication, Delany says, "is that having children creates a protective factor so that women may not be going back to drug use."
Delany says the study highlights the importance of getting the message out to women to not resume substance use after pregnancy.
"It's just something we need to work better on as a nation," he says. "Women just aren't stopping the way we would hope."
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