Alcohol drinking in pregnant women from an Argentinian city

Abstract

<jats:p>Alcohol drinking during pregnancy might lead to detrimental consequences to the mother and fetus, being Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) the most severe. In many Latin-American countries, there is a paucity of information about prenatal exposure to alcohol. Aim. To estimate alcohol drinking in pregnant women and describe it concerning sociodemographic characteristics. Method. Data were collected from a random sample of women attending the public health care system (N=852) in 2016. Alcohol drinking, including binge drinking (BD), was evaluated before and after pregnancy recognition. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed. Results. While pregnant, two out of ten women reported drinking. Moreover, 2% engaged in BD and 3% presented indicators of alcohol dependence. BD before pregnancy was related to drinking during pregnancy and frequency, quantity, and BD before pregnancy with BD during pregnancy. Conclusions. Alcohol consumption in pregnant women was higher than the estimated for most Latin-American countries, and of the considered characteristics, was almost exclusively related to consumption patterns before pregnancy.</jats:p>

A double‐hit model reveals individual and synergic consequences of prenatal and adolescent postnatal ethanol exposure

“…Prenatal alcohol exposure is highly prevalent worldwide. In Argentina, Lichtenberger et al (2020) reported that 2 out of 10 women reported drinking during pregnancy. Reports from the US, in turn, suggest that around 5% of pregnant women endorse binge drinking (i.e., the ingestion of four standard drinks in a single and usually brief drinking episode) sometime at pregnancy (Popova et al, 2017).…”