20% of women smoke or drink during pregnancy
However, expectant women are significantly more likely to smoke during pregnancy if they have fewer qualifications, a Government-funded study revealed.
The study, Growing Up in Ireland — The Infants and their Families, tracks the lives of 11,100 nine-month-old infants and their families. It found that nearly one-in-five mothers smoked at some stage while pregnant and a similar proportion had drunk alcohol.
Interestingly, during pregnancy, women with lower levels of education were more likely to smoke, but less likely to drink alcohol, than women with the highest education.
Despite 20% of mothers having taken alcohol at some stage during pregnancy, just 6% had taken alcohol in all three trimesters. Drinking alcohol at some stage in pregnancy was highest for mothers with degree-level education (26%).
The study found that women with the highest education were more likely to drink at any stage of pregnancy, and at the time of interview, than their peers with the lowest education.
However, the findings suggest that smokers find it more difficult to give up cigarettes than drinkers find it to abstain from alcohol.
In contrast, mothers born in Ireland had higher rates of smoking in pregnancy (20%) than those born in other countries (13%).
Mothers with lower levels of education were the most likely to have smoked at some stage in pregnancy. For example, 40% of mothers who left education at lower secondary level or earlier reported they smoked at some stage in pregnancy. This compares with 6% among graduates.
Speaking at the launch of the report, research professor with the ESRI and principal investigator and co-director with Growing Up in Ireland project, Prof James Williams, said uncertainty about the effects of moderate drinking was behind the higher incidence of better-educated women taking alcohol during pregnancy.
“The debate around drinking and pregnancy is much more ambiguous, much less certain, than around smoking,” said Prof Williams.
