Brief counseling helps pregnant women cut drinking

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Even a short counseling session can help pregnant women cut their drinking and improve their chances of a healthy pregnancy, new research suggests.

In a study of 255 low-income pregnant women who drank, researchers found that brief meetings with a nutritionist helped the expectant mothers cut out alcohol and cut their odds of losing the pregnancy.

The findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Drinking during pregnancy raises the risk of a range of birth defects and developmental disorders -- from mild learning disabilities to, most seriously, fetal alcohol syndrome. FAS is a collection of birth defects and developmental problems that can include delayed growth, significant learning disabilities and abnormal facial features.

Because there is no known safe level of drinking for pregnant women, experts advise abstinence during pregnancy. Women who may become pregnant are also urged to give up alcohol so they don't end up drinking in the weeks soon after conception, before they know they are pregnant.

In the new study, researchers tried to take advantage of the federal nutrition program WIC to reach low-income pregnant women -- who often lack early or high-quality prenatal care.

Women seen at six Southern California WIC centers were screened for alcohol use, then offered a 10-minute counseling session with a nutritionist to talk about cutting down on their drinking. They were screened again each month, and if necessary, had another counseling session.

These women were compared with those at six other WIC centers, where pregnant women were screened for drinking, and then advised to stop if they did. They did not, however, have a counseling session.

Overall, the study found, women in both groups cut down on their drinking, but those in the counseling group were five times more likely to say they'd stopped drinking entirely.

In line with that, their rate of miscarriage or stillbirth was three times lower, and their newborns had a higher average birth weight and greater birth length.

The findings suggest that programs like WIC should be used to educate low-income pregnant women about the risks of drinking, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Mary J. O'Connor of the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Given the nationwide presence of WIC centers and the comparable services provided across centers," they write, "there is a significant opportunity to protect a large number of children at risk because of alcohol exposure during pregnancy."

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, February 2007.