Women Quit Smoking, Drinking During Pregnancy, But Resume After Giving Birth

A pair of new federal studies indicate that while women commonly abstain from smoking, drinking and using other drugs during pregnancy, many quickly resume substance use postpartum.

The reports from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that only about 1 in 8 women drink while pregnant, and the lowest rates of substance use were reported during the third trimester of pregnancy (6.2 percent for alcohol use, 13.9 percent for smoking, and 1.4 percent for marijuana use, for example). Many women cut down significantly on their substance use between the first and final trimesters.

However, the overall number of abstainers did not decline during the 15-year CDC study period, and SAMHSA researchers found that new mothers quickly returned to using alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana.

For example, the study found that the rate of past-month alcohol use was 31.9 percent among women with children under three months old, 10 percent binged on alcohol, 20.4 percent smoked, and 3.8 percent used marijuana within the past month.