13% of French women say they smoked throughout their pregnancy and 6% drank alcohol on special occasions during these nine very special months.
- Smoking and drinking alcohol during pregnancy can have serious consequences for the health of the mother and her unborn child.
- Yet many French women continue to drink and smoke during their pregnancy.
- “It appears important to continue prevention efforts and to support women who may have difficulty with substance use during their pregnancy,” says Santé Publique France in a new report.
Even though tobacco and alcohol are harmful to the fetus and the mother, many French women still cannot do without them during their pregnancy. This is the conclusion of a new survey by Public Health France.
24% of French women smoked tobacco when they found out they were pregnant
“Among mothers of children aged 5 or under in 2021, 24% were smoking when they found out they were pregnant,” first indicates the report.
Among those women who were smoking when they found out they were pregnant in 2021, “45% said they stopped smoking as soon as they found out they were pregnant or during their pregnancy, 51% said they reduced the amount of tobacco smoked without stopping completely and finally 4% neither stopped nor reduced their consumption”, can also be read in the document.
“Compared to all mothers of children aged 5 or under in 2021, 13% of them reported having smoked during their entire pregnancy,” add public health experts.
Tobacco and alcohol during pregnancy: “It appears important to continue prevention efforts”
The study also assessed the potential alcohol consumption during pregnancy among a panel of French women. “Among mothers of children aged 5 or under in 2021, 93% reported never having drunk alcohol during their last pregnancy after learning they were pregnant and 6% only for special occasions,” details Public Health France. “Less than 1% reported drinking more than once a month,” reports the health agency.
In conclusion, the authors of the report believe “that it appears important to continue prevention efforts and to support women who may have difficulty with substance use during their pregnancy, because the number of French women and children affected is far from anecdotal.”
“Tobacco and alcohol consumption during pregnancy can have serious consequences on the health of the mother and that of the unborn child. In France, the recommendations during the pregnancy period – at a minimum – are thus not to consume alcohol and not to smoke”, they finally recall.
Tobacco and alcohol during pregnancy: what are the health dangers?
Smoking increases the risk of ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, preterm delivery, retroplacental hematoma, low-lying placenta, and fetal developmental abnormalities.
Alcohol consumed by a pregnant woman passes very quickly into the fetus’ bloodstream. As a result, it can cause delays in the acquisition of language, writing and fine motor skills in the unborn child, behavioral problems, serious malformations and growth retardation. Just one drink can be enough to cause these types of problems.
