Women's Perception on Drinking Alcohol during Pregnancy

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Review question: What are the views of women on drinking alcohol during pregnancy?
Name of the student:
Course title:
Unit code:

1HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Table of Contents
Literature review question:..............................................................................................................2
Question context/background:.........................................................................................................2
Methodology:...................................................................................................................................5
Results:............................................................................................................................................9
Thematic discussion:.....................................................................................................................16
Statement of findings:....................................................................................................................19
Strength and limitation of study:...................................................................................................20
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................22

2HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Literature review question:
What are the views of women on drinking alcohol during pregnancy?
Question context/background:
The main purpose of this literature review is to find out the perception of women
regarding drinking alcohol during pregnancy. This is important because the number of women
drinking alcohol during pregnancy has increased and this has been the reason for many
pregnancy related complications. UK has one of the worst rates of drinking during pregnancy
with about four in every 10 women engaging in professional binge drinking in the first few
months (Sarah Knapton 2017). Women particularly in their first trimester are not taking any
steps to reduce alcohol consumption, instead they are heavily drinking in the first trimester only.
Unawareness about the impact of alcohol on pregnancy is one of the reasons for heaving alcohol
drinking. Raising awareness about risk associated with alcohol exposure during pregnancy may
be a necessary step to encourage women to quit drinking during pregnancy.
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is a reason for pregnancy related complications and
high prevalence of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in new born babies. FAS is an umbrella term
given to range of disorders found in new born babies such abnormal appearance, poor
intelligence, growth retardation and cognitive impairment or behavioral abnormalities. FAS also
affects other organ system thus leading to oro-facial clefts, cardiac anomalies, neural tube defects
and developmental disorders in babies (Gupta, =Gupta and Shirasaka 2016). This kind of effect
is seen due to the teratogenecity of alcohol on the human embryo. Disorders like cognitive
impairment occur because of damage involving the central nervous system. Fetal alcohol

3HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
syndrome (FAS) is mainly found in women who drinking about 48-60 gr. Ethanol/day. However,
drinking moderate amount of alcohol during pregnancy is also found to increase risk of
spontaneous abortion in women particularly in the first trimester of pregnancy. FAS is the
serious effects of alcohol drinking, whereas low birth weight are minor effects of alcohol on the
developing fetus (Ornoy and Ergaz, 2010). Considering such devastating effect of alcohol on
fetus, implementing preventive programs for high risk individual has become a necessity.
Currently, increased attention is being paid to reduce the prevalence of alcohol drinking
in pregnant women because of great health burden and cost associated with the behavior. In a
study done to investigate about the cost associated with alcohol drinking in pregnant women, it
has been found that UK is one of the country with the highest prevalence of alcohol use during
pregnancy (Popova 2017). The burden of the health care system is understood from the fact that
in 2014-2015, about 6, 700 admissions in England occurred for spontaneous abortion and low
birth weight (Public Health England 2016). The problem is restricted not only to pregnancy stage
and birth of babies. Alcohol abuse in pregnant women is a reason for socio-economic problem
too because parental drinking lead to child abuse. It has an impact on the social, psychological
and economic environment of a child too (Kuntsche, Le Mével and Zucker 2016). From the
above information on impact of heavy drinking on health care burden and cost, it is evident that
it is a serious public health problem which requires more effective preventive efforts than before.
To improve previously implemented programs, it is also essential to monitor the factors
contributing to prevalence of FAD and developed tailor made programs accordingly.
The alarming rate of hospital admissions for pregnancy related complications clearly
indicates that women are drinking alcohol in excess amounts today. This brings forward the
question that ‘Why women drink so much alcohol today?’. Such kinds of trend and preference

4HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
for alcohol drinking among women may due to changes in gender roles, social values and
economic development in countries (Dumbili 2015). Evidence suggests that currently drinking
habits in women has increased because of changes in women’s role in society today. They are
now well-established in their career and have sound economic strengths too. Many countries
have a professional binge drinking culture too which increases exposure to alcohol in women
(Wilsnack et al. 2009). However, cultural factor is found to play a major role in determining the
gender difference in alcohol consumption. Social and cultural context of alcohol use also justifies
the reasons for disparities in alcohol use. Although men are regarded to consume more alcohol
than women, however Sudhinaraset, Wigglesworth and Takeuchi (2016) also explains that more
number of women in developed countries are consuming alcohol compared to women in
developing countries. Hence, this trend is highly linked to underlying social and cultural factors
of an individual such as socioeconomic status and culture. These are strong predictors of positive
or negative health behavior in people.
Although preventive programs and educational interventions at young age before the start
of pregnancy is considered an effective strategy to make women aware about deleterious effect
of alcohol on baby, however this kind of programs can be effective if it aims to address the factor
leading to initiation of drinking habits in women. Some women engage in heavy drinking each
day, whereas there are others who binge drink on occasions with 4-5 drinks of alcohol. This type
of habit is developed because of differences in cultural and social factors of women. Evidence
also suggests that many women tend to drink more during pregnancy because of experience of
violence, lack of prenatal consultation and not having a partner (Veloso and Monteiro 2013).
This indicates that there might be numerous other cause behind the tendency of pregnant women
to start drinking. Hence, it is necessary to understand the perception of women regarding

5HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
drinking alcohol. Research in this area is important because this may give an idea about
motivation behind drinking habits in pregnant women. Review of research literature in this area
may enlighten about social issues or ignorance factor that increases risky alcohol drinking in
women. Critical review and analysis of research on women’s perception regarding drinking
alcohol during pregnancy will shed light into the preventive actions that can be taken in the
future to reduce the risk associated with drinking during pregnancy.
Methodology:
Based on above discussion on the practice issues and social challenges found due to
alcohol drinking in pregnant women, it is necessary to find research article to understand
women’s perception regarding drinking alcohol during pregnancy. The main objective of the
literature review is to find out women’s perception about drinking during pregnancy and identify
the factors leading to drinking habits in women. It also seeks to identify the implications of the
findings on addressing process issue and reducing the burden of the health care system. The
selection of key search terminology and the development of relevant exclusion and inclusion
criteria is the basis by which relevant research article related to the research question can be
selected. All details about the process used to identify and select research articles for the
literature review are given below.
Search strategy:
As this literature review mainly seeks to identify alcohol consumption preference among
women during pregnancy, the search strategy is to review research from established databases
that covers lot of biomedical and health care research. Hence, the search process for research
article was started by the review of databases like PubMed, MedLine, Scopus and Cochrane. All