Date: 5/21/2009 Media Contact: SAMHSA
Press Office Telephone: 240-276-2130
National Report Finds Low Levels of Substance Use among Pregnant Women, but
Higher Levels in New
Many Women’s Use of Alcohol, Cigarettes and Illicit
Drugs Resumes after Childbirth
A new national report provides both encouraging and discouraging news about
the use of substances by pregnant women and new mothers. Based on a nationwide
survey, the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) suggests that most women are heeding warnings about the
dangers that substance use during pregnancy can pose to fetuses and are
abstaining -- especially in the latter stages of their pregnancies.
However, this report, as well as a new study published today by the U.S.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report, show that the number of women who drink alcohol while pregnant is
disturbingly high, despite past Surgeon Generals’ warnings about the dangers of
drinking alcohol while pregnant. According to a 15 year-study by the CDC, the
number of women who drink alcohol while pregnant is not decreasing – with
approximately 1 in 8 women drinking any amount of alcohol while pregnant.
In addition, the data from the SAMHSA report suggest that once they give
birth, many new mothers resume the use of alcohol, cigarettes, illicit drugs or
engage in binge drinking.*
Substance use rates were lowest among women in the third trimester of
pregnancy. For example, the rate of past month alcohol use was 6.2 percent;
binge alcohol use, 1.0 percent; cigarette use, 13.9 percent; and marijuana use,
1.4 percent.
Still, a sizeable proportion of women in the first trimester of pregnancy
were past month users of alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana, and one in seven
women used cigarettes in the second or third trimester. However, some of the
pregnant women who used substances in their first trimester may not have been
aware that they were pregnant at the time. In the month leading up to the
survey interview, 19.0 percent of women in their first trimester of pregnancy
used alcohol, 8.0 percent engaged in binge drinking, 21.8 percent smoked
cigarettes, and 4.6 percent used marijuana.
Among the report’s most significant findings was that many postpartum women
rapidly resume substance use. For example, when compared with women in the
third trimester of pregnancy, non-pregnant women with children under 3 months
old in the household had much higher rates of past month alcohol use (6.2 vs.
31.9 percent), binge alcohol use (1 vs. 10 percent), cigarette use (13.9 vs.
20.4 percent), and marijuana use (1.4 vs. 3.8 percent), suggesting resumption of
substance use among many mothers in the 3 months after childbirth.
Past month alcohol use among women aged 18 to 44 was highest for those who
were not pregnant and did not have children living in the household (63 percent)
but comparatively low for women in the first trimester of pregnancy (19
percent), and even lower for those in the second (7.8 percent) or third
trimester (6.2 percent). Similar patterns were seen with marijuana, cigarette,
and binge alcohol use.
“Alcohol, cigarette, and illicit drug use during pregnancy can cause poor
pregnancy outcomes and early childhood behavioral and development problems, and
use after pregnancy exposes children to a variety of negative effects. These
problems can limit a child’s potential, are costly and 100 percent preventable”
said SAMHSA’s Acting Administrator, Eric Broderick, D.D.S, M.P.H.
Substance Use among Women during Pregnancy and Following Childbirth is drawn
from SAMHSA’s 2002 through 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)
which collected data from a nationally representative sample of approximately
113,000 civilian, noninstitutional females aged 18 to 44 including approximately
6,000 who were pregnant at the time of the survey interview.
*Binge alcohol use is defined as drinking five or more drinks at the same
time or within a couple of hours on at least 1 day in the past 30 days.
Information about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) -- an umbrella term
describing the range of possible effects a person may suffer if their mother
drank alcohol at any time during pregnancy – can be obtained at the SAMHSA FASD
Center for Excellence 1-866-STOPFAS (786-7327) or http://www.fascenter.samhsa.gov/.
SAMHSA is a public health agency within the Department of
Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the
accountability, capacity and effectiveness of the nation's substance abuse
prevention, addictions treatment, and mental health services delivery
system.
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