So we see several hundred clients a year here at Mama, and we discuss alcohol and pregnancy and we discuss what's in the Victorian maternity record with the clients.
But there's not all that much information that we talk about. We ask them if they drink alcohol, how much they drink, how many standard drinks and how many drinks before pregnancy they had.
Women are really interested in anything that impacts the health of their child and so they're very interested to find out what a safe level of alcohol is in pregnancy, in fact if there is a safe level of alcohol in pregnancy. So I find that across the board, all women want to know if alcohol is safe in pregnancy.
I always advise our clients that it's safest not to drink any alcohol at all in pregnancy because we just don't know what a safe level is.
I don't think health professionals should be reluctant about talking about alcohol in pregnancy because it's such an important issue. Women do want to know about alcohol and pregnancy so we should talk about it as health practitioners.
End of transcript
In this video, Kelly Langford shares her views about health professionals speaking to pregnant women about alcohol. Kelly is a midwife.
She talks about how women want to know:
- about anything that impacts the health of their child
- if there is a safe level of alcohol during pregnancy
She thinks that health professionals should talk about alcohol and pregnancy because it’s such an important issue.