Some moms resume substance abuse after their baby’s born
According to an article from USA today, the National Survey of Drug Use and Health shows that fewer women are drinking closer to their delivery date. However, 19 percent of those surveyed still use alcohol in their first trimester. This could have also been because the women did not know she was pregnant and drank alcohol unknowingly.
There is however, still a staggering amount of women who choose to drink during pregnancy. The article states:
“The report also cites a 15-year study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noting that the number of women who drink while pregnant remains high and hasn’t changed much in that time — still one in eight women drink some amount of alcohol while pregnant.”
What the study also found is what kind of habits women fall back into after their pregnancy, whether it is alcohol or marijuana abuse. The study or 68,000 women taken from 2002 to 2007 showed that 10 percent of women binge drink after their pregnancy, 20 percent was smoking cigarettes and almost 4 percent were smoking marijuana.
Of course, these statistics do not take into account if the woman was already doing these kinds of behaviors prior to their pregnancy. They could perhaps just be resuming the practices they had before they became pregnant.
The study mostly should be used to show the importance of not abusing substances after a child is born. The study cites that fewer women are using alcohol as their pregnancy progresses, but 31 percent of women in the study did report drinking after their child had been born.
The article did not state if the statistics were based on how many drinks a woman had and what constituted as drinking after pregnancy, because there is a difference between a glass of wine and binge drinking.
The article quotes a Peter Delany, rector of the Office of Applied Studies in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that conducted the study he says:
“The study highlights the importance of getting the message out to women to not resume substance use after pregnancy.”
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