- Alcohol use among pregnant women in the U.S. increased significantly between 2011 and 2024.
- Binge and heavy drinking reached 4.6% and 2%, respectively, of pregnant women.
- Prenatal alcohol exposure is linked to fetal alcohol disorders, miscarriage, preterm birth, stillbirth and SIDS.
More women are drinking alcoholic beverages while pregnant, raising concern about the risk their babies will have neurodevelopmental disabilities. Prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading preventable cause of those.
Read more ‘Biggest and heaviest season’: ‘The Chosen’ unveils first Season 6 teaser trailer
According to new research from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, alcohol use in pregnancy — including high-risk drinking patterns — increased between 2011 and 2024 after years of relative stability since the 1990s.
The findings are published in the journal JAMA.
“Alcohol consumption in the general population has changed considerably in recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, but national estimates of prenatal alcohol use did not extend beyond 2020,” Emilie Bruzelius, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Substance Abuse Epidemiology Training Program in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia, said in a news release on the findings.
The researchers also found an association between tobacco use and higher risk drinking among pregnant women who said they imbibed. Among pregnant women who engaged in binge or heavy drinking, nearly 7 in 10 also used tobacco, compared with about 3 in 10 of those who drank but did not binge or drink heavily.
About the study
To study the issue, the researchers used trend data on current alcohol use, binge drinking and heavy drinking by pregnant women in the U.S. during those years, taken from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which is a telephone survey sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Women ages 18 to 49 who reported being pregnant and answered questions about their alcohol consumption were included and, for comparison, so were women of that age who were not pregnant.
In all, 33,729 pregnant women provided information on past-month alcohol use.
Alcohol use was self-reported, focusing on the previous month. One or more drinks was counted as current alcohol use, four or more on one occasion was considered binge drinking and eight or more drinks a week was counted as heavy drinking.
Current alcohol use among pregnant women increased from 9% in 2011-2012 to 15% in 2021-2022, then declined slightly to 14.5% in 2023-2024. Binge drinking and heavy drinking both followed similar patterns. The survey found 4.6% of the pregnant women engaged in binge drinking, while 2% fit the criteria for heavy drinking in 2023-2024.
Read more These driving patterns could kill you — or someone else
“When we adjusted for long-term trends using statistical models, we found that each successive two-year period was associated with higher odds of current alcohol use, binge drinking and heavy drinking during the past month,” Bruzelius said in the written statement. “These findings indicate statistically significant increases across the study period.”
Said Dr. Silvia Martins, professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School and the study’s senior author, “While no amount of alcohol has been established as safe during pregnancy, these increases across all patterns of drinking are concerning.”
Alcohol and pregnancy a bad combination
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes that there’s no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy and that all types of alcohol are harmful, including wine, beer and liquor.
Per the CDC, “Alcohol use during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage, preterm birth, stillbirth and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause a range of lifelong behavioral, intellectual and physical disabilities known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.”
Problems can arise at any point in pregnancy when alcohol is part of life, including before the pregnancy has been detected. The CDC said that use of alcohol in the first trimester can lead to abnormal facial features, while growth and central nervous system problems could happen at any stage during pregnancy. Alcohol can impact brain development and also lead to low birthweight.
Read more How Shakespeare won the Wild West, from pioneers to gold miners to today