This archive report was first published on 20 August 2019.
Published on August 20, 2019, a study has shed light on the unintended consequences of policies aimed at protecting unborn children from the effects of maternal drinking.
Researchers analyzed birth certificate data from over 155 million live births between 1972 and 2015, focusing on the rates of low birth weight and premature births in areas with and without alcohol-pregnancy policies.
The study found that policies defining alcohol use during pregnancy as child abuse or neglect led to an increase of over 12,000 preterm births, resulting in costs exceeding $580 million in the first year of life. Similarly, policies mandating warning signs at alcohol-selling establishments were associated with an increase of more than 7,000 low birth weight babies, at a cost of over $150 million.
Interestingly, a previous study on the impact of these policies on women's drinking habits found mixed results, with states having more punitive policies actually experiencing higher levels of drinking.
Dr. Sarah Roberts, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco, noted that while doctors have long discussed potential dangers with patients one-on-one, policies that punish or publicly warn women about harms from alcohol or drug use during pregnancy may lead to further harms by scaring women into forgoing prenatal care.
