“No Alcohol Is Recommended, But . . .”: Health Care Students’ Attitudes About Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy

Abstract

Canadian findings suggest that health care providers require further training and education to support their work preventing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). However, the knowledge and training of health care students in relation to FASD remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this study was to understand the attitudes and beliefs of health care students about alcohol use during pregnancy. Twenty-one health care students participated in a scenario-based vignette about alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Although almost all students recognized that no alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the safest recommendation, many students recounted that this advice is not always conveyed during encounters with their pregnant patients. Three primary themes related to students’ attitudes concerning alcohol use during pregnancy were identified. Health care professionals in training need further education about the risks of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the potential health outcomes associated with prenatal alcohol exposure.

How Personal Perspectives Shape Health Professionals’ Perceptions of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Risk

“…Other studies have revealed that professionals across a broad range of helping professions are either unaware of FASD or not sufficiently familiar with it to be able to offer appropriate support [6,7,24,25,26]. Coons et al [27] suggest that providing advice on alcohol use and pregnancy is neither routine or consistent in health care practice, and that embedding clear, balanced and consistent messaging within clinical practice is a critical aspect of prevention. However, as they elsewhere note [28], providing such advice is further challenged by varying levels of knowledge, education and training on FASD, as well as personal beliefs regarding women’s autonomy and pre-existing beliefs and subjective biases regarding who uses alcohol during pregnancy.…”

Presence of Complex and Potentially Conflicting Information in Prenatal Mobile Apps

“…Pregnant women and the providers who care for them aim to minimize physical risks to mother and baby, but the level of risk changes with knowledge gained and evidence found (Lauritzen & Sachs, 2001). In some domains, the degrees of risk are not yet agreed upon in the medical community, such as the quantity of alcohol a woman can consume before it is no longer “safe,” and the varying provider perceptions can alter how that risk information is communicated and perceived by pregnant women (Coons, Watson, Yantzi, Lightfoot, & Larocque, 2017).…”

Health Care Students’ Attitudes About Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy: Responses to Narrative Vignettes

“…Health care professionals play a pivotal role in the prevention of FASD through their counseling and recommendations regarding alcohol consumption during pregnancy. However, despite international recognition that no alcohol during pregnancy is the safest course of action (e.g., pregnancy guidelines in countries such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, China, Denmark, France, Germany, and Australia; see International Alliance for Responsible Drinking, 2016), recent findings indicate that the message that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is still not always disseminated by health care students or professionals (Coons, Watson, Yantzi, Lightfoot, & Larocque, 2017; Inoue, Entwistle, Wolf-Branigin, & Wolf-Branigin, 2017). It is unclear why some health care professionals, particularly physicians and midwives, are inconsistent in their recommendations regarding alcohol consumption during pregnancy.…”