Alcohol use among pregnant and nonpregnant women of childbearing age - United States, 1991-2005.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy is a risk factor for poor birth outcomes, including fetal alcohol syndrome, birth defects, and low birth weight. In the United States, the prevalence of fetal alcohol syndrome is estimated at 0.5-2.0 cases per 1,000 births, but other fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are believed to occur approximately three times as often as fetal alcohol syndrome. The 2005 U.S. Surgeon General's advisory on alcohol use in pregnancy, advises women who are pregnant or considering becoming pregnant to abstain from using alcohol. Binge drinking is particularly harmful to fetal brain development. Healthy People 2010 objectives include increasing the percentage of pregnant women who report abstinence from alcohol use to 95% and increasing the percentage who report abstinence from binge drinking to 100%. To examine the prevalence of any alcohol use and binge drinking among pregnant women and nonpregnant women of childbearing age in the United States and to characterize the women with these alcohol use behaviors, CDC analyzed 1991-2005 data from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys. The findings indicated that the prevalence of any alcohol use and binge drinking among pregnant and nonpregnant women of childbearing age did not change substantially from 1991 to 2005. During 2001-2005, the highest percentages of pregnant women reporting any alcohol use were aged 35-44 years (17.7%), college graduates (14.4%), employed (13.7%), and unmarried (13.4%). Health-care providers should ask women of childbearing age about alcohol use routinely, inform them of the risks from drinking alcohol while pregnant, and advise them not to drink alcohol while pregnant or if they might become pregnant.