Identifying alcohol abuse among pregnant women is often difficult for a variety of reasons: 1) prenatal care systems do not routinely screen for alcohol abuse 2)women are reluctant to report their alcohol abuse to their prenatal care providers 3) some prenatal care providers advise prenatal patients that moderate alcohol use is safe; 4)pregnant women under estimate or are unaware of the true amount of alcohol that they are consuming. The Early Start Program, which systematically integrates substance abuse screening, identification, assessment and intervention with routine prenatal care, has identified and refined several strategies which facilitate more accurate reporting and identification of alcohol use during pregnancy. Four cases of pregnant women who initially screened at low risk for alcohol abuse during pregnancy, but upon assessment were found to be at moderate to high risk, will be presented and the strategies used to identify their risk for abuse will be described.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session participants will be able to: 1) list 3 reasons why it is difficult to identify alcohol abuse in pregnant women 2) list at least 3 strategies that can be implemented to facilitate identification of alcohol abuse in pregnant women
Keywords: Alcohol Problems, Prenatal Interventions
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Kaiser Permanente, The Permanente Medical Group
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.