Good Practices
Riskier Drinking Ways In Young Women
In earlier articles for the network, we've noted that young women in some parts of Europe and North America are drinking in riskier ways -- that is, drinking more often and drinking more per occasion. One of the concerns about this trend is that alcohol and pregnancy don't mix. Drinking during pregnancy can result in lifelong physical, behavioural and mental damage to a child. Binge drinking -- drinking five or more drinks per occasion -- is known to be particularly risky for a fetus, but a safe level of drinking is not known. For this reason, women are advised not to drink alcohol if they are trying to become pregnant or once they know they are pregnant.
However, a recent study from the US found that 18- to 20-year-old women are more likely to use alcohol and tobacco during pregnancy than older pregnant women. The study, by SH Ebrahim and colleagues, found that, compared with older women, young pregnant women were less likely to quit drinking alcohol when they became pregnant. The research showed that in 1997, 74 per cent of young women stopped using alcohol and tobacco when they became pregnant, while 83 percent of older pregnant women stopped.
The researchers noted that efforts to reduce smoking and drinking among women of childbearing age are crucial because most women do not realize they are pregnant until the fourth week after conception when some damage to the fetus could already have occurred.
Is it right to place all of the responsibility for a healthy child on the woman? Will efforts to reduce drinking that don't involve men be effective? What do you think? Should young men share the responsibility for the health of a fetus and child with their partner? How could they do that?
This article was drawn from a news summary on the web site: www.jointogether.org. The study is published in the November issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.