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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Most women know drinking during pregnancy can seriously harm an unborn child. The problem is, the damage may already be done before a woman even realizes she is pregnant.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report they've found a good way to keep that from happening: simple counseling sessions where women are informed about the dangers excessive drinking could pose to their unborn children.
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To test the theory, investigators enrolled women who were either heavy drinkers or binge drinkers in a study. While none were planning to become pregnant, they weren't using effective forms of birth control either. About half the group received a brochure showing how alcohol can affect an unborn child. The other half took part in nonjudgmental counseling sessions where they received information on fetal alcohol syndrome and were also advised to both cut back on their risky drinking habits and use effective birth control until they could.
The researchers report the program worked. Significantly more of the women in the intervention group cut back on their drinking and started using effective birth control at follow ups conducted three, six, and nine months following the counseling than the women who were simply given a brochure.
"What we were able to do was to help the women become aware that they were at risk, and subsequently, they made decisions to change their risk behavior," reports study author Louise Floyd, chief of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention Team at the CDC.
Fellow investigator Grace Chang, M.D., M.P.H., from Harvard Medical School, applauds the program. "Women are very smart, and if you actually talk to women about their drinking, they can put it all together and come up with the idea that, 'Gee, maybe this isn't such a great thing to do,'" Dr. Chang reports.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published online Dec. 28, 2006
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