Vulnerability of Pregnant Women Using Alcohol and Other Drugs in Low-Risk Prenatal Care

Abstract

Objective: to verify the contexts that enhance the dimensions of individual, social, and programmatic vulnerability associated with the use of alcohol and other drugs during pregnancy. Method: qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory, cross-sectional study. Participants were 38 pregnant women who used alcohol and other drugs, at a moderate and severe level, in low-risk prenatal care in the Primary Health Care of two cities in the Metropolitan Region of Maringá - Paraná. Data was collected from, December 2019 to March 2020. The Vulnerability analytical framework guided the discussion. Results: at the individual level, the vulnerability contexts were issues of gender, brown and black ethnicity/color, low education, reproductive period, and high parity. At the social level, the lack of insertion in the job market, family income below the poverty line, abusive intra-family relationships, addictive behavior in the family, and violence in the living community. In the programmatic plan, there was a low demand for health services, lack of welcoming for the treatment of drug use, screening for deficient drug use, low bond with family health teams, absence of dental, psychological, and social services, insertion in the inadequate level of prenatal care, usual risk, while they should have been classified as high risk, and mean prenatal consultations below recommended. Conclusion: the study made it possible to advance in the contexts of the vulnerability of these pregnant women. Recognizing these contexts makes it possible to formulate strategies to reduce harm and damages to maternal and fetal health related to drug use during pregnancy, leading to a favorable gestational outcome.