title: Alcohol consumption by women before and during pregnancy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence, patterns, and predictors of alcohol consumption prior to and during various intervals of pregnancy in the U.S.
  
  
  METHODS
  Alcohol-related, pregnancy-related, and demographic data were derived from computer-assisted telephone interviews with 4,088 randomly selected control mothers from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study who delivered live born infants without birth defects during 1997-2002. Alcohol consumption rates and crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  30.3% of all women reported drinking alcohol at some time during pregnancy, of which 8.3% reported binge drinking (4+ drinks on one occasion). Drinking rates declined considerably after the first month of pregnancy, during which 22.5% of women reported drinking, although 2.7% of women reported drinking during all trimesters of pregnancy and 7.9% reported drinking during the 3rd trimester. Pre-pregnancy binge drinking was a strong predictor of both drinking during pregnancy (adjusted OR = 8.52, 95% CI = 6.67-10.88) and binge drinking during pregnancy (adjusted OR = 36.02, 95% CI = 24.63-52.69). Other characteristics associated with both any drinking and binge drinking during pregnancy were non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity, cigarette smoking during pregnancy, and having an unintended pregnancy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study revealed that drinking during pregnancy is fairly common, three times the levels reported in surveys that ask only about drinking during the month before the survey. Women who binge drink before pregnancy are at particular risk for drinking after becoming pregnant. Sexually active women of childbearing ages who drink alcohol should be advised to use reliable methods to prevent pregnancy, plan their pregnancies, and stop drinking before becoming pregnant.
authors.affiliation: Texas Department of State Health Services, Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Austin, TX 78756, USA. mary.ethen@dshs.state.tx.us
authors.forename: Mary K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Ethen
authors.forename: Tunu A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Ramadhani
authors.forename: Angela E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Scheuerle
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Canfield
authors.forename: Diego F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Wyszynski
authors.forename: Charlotte M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Druschel
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Romitti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult