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Supporting women and pregnant people’s choice to drink alcohol-free can make a big difference. Life partners, friends, colleagues, family, community members, and healthcare professionals can all have an impact.
Read on to discover effective ways you can help.
Offers and pressure to have “a little drink” are often mentioned as an irritant or challenge by those who have a hard time avoiding alcohol during pregnancy.
You should never offer a pregnant person alcohol, even in small quantities. This gesture interferes with their desire to drink alcohol-free, even if your intention is to help them feel good, celebrate or relax.
Pregnancy can be used as an opportunity to change habits and discover non-alcoholic drinks and other ways to have fun, celebrate or relax.
Do you know a pregnant woman or person?
Here are three ways you can support them in their choice to drink alcohol-free.
The future father or partner’s influence on the pregnant person is particularly important.
It’s not because we suddenly decide to start a family that, our physical and social environment changes to help us stop drinking alcohol for 9 months. In Quebec, alcohol is omnipresent in our lives, and, for some pregnant women, this makes abstinence even more difficult.
Alcohol advertising encourages people to drink. If you have a restaurant or business frequented by pregnant people, you can support them by reducing alcohol advertising on your establishment’s walls, displays, tables, menus or windows. You can also make sure to offer an interesting selection of non-alcoholic options.
In Quebec, the current Public Health Notice from the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux states that if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, do not take any risks, do not consume any alcohol.
FASD is often associated with certain characteristic facial features. However, these affect only 10% of people living with FASD.
FASD is most often invisible, making it difficult to diagnose and monitor.
There is no safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy. However, we know that consuming four or more drinks on a single occasion poses a definite risk to the fetus.
The father’s alcohol consumption may also affect their sperm’s DNA and increase the risk of developing FASD.
Several factors influence the type and intensity of possible impacts of alcohol consumption during pregnancy:
Embryos are particularly vulnerable during the first weeks of development, which in many cases occurs before the pregnancy is discovered. There are risks even at the pre-implantation stage. This poses a challenge, knowing that 30% to 60% of pregnancies are unplanned.
Discover tools to address the issue of alcohol consumption during pregnancy with an open and compassionate approach, including videos, posters and a fact sheet on FASD.
Discuss alcohol use with all pregnant women and inform them that this topic is routinely talked about to avoid guilt or stigma.
Integrate the topic of alcohol with other lifestyle habits : sleep, physical activity, medication, diet and smoking.
Explore the pregnant woman’s knowledge of the risks of alcohol during pregnancy. If deficiencies are noticed, offer information if desired. This website can help you.
Example :
Explore how she feels about going without alcohol throughout the pregnancy to see if she finds it difficult and to offer resources if needed.
Example :
Use open-ended questions that promote dialogue.
Avoid leading questions such as, “You don’t drink alcohol, do you?”
Focus on non-judgemental, exploratory questions.
Examples :
Since 2020, the ASPQ has been publishing an annual FASD bulletin. This collection of texts addresses current topics around FASD and alcohol consumption during pregnancy. It provides an overview, among other things, of the latest scientific data, survey results, public policies, and promising initiatives.
