Background: Qualitative studies have aimed to understand why some women continue to drink during pregnancy; however, there is a lack of comparative cross-cultural research. We aimed to explore perceptions and practices of alcohol use during pregnancy in England and Sweden.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 parents in Merseyside, England and 22 parents in Örebro County, Sweden. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results: The majority of women in both countries abstained from alcohol when they found out they were pregnant, despite alcohol being part of many social contexts before pregnancy. Nine of the seventeen English women drank at some point during pregnancy, typically on special occasions. Most parents felt women should modify their alcohol intake when they become mothers, though several English parents argued that responsible motherhood did not necessarily equate to abstinence. Swedish parents held strong opinions against drinking during pregnancy and argued that any amount of alcohol could harm the foetus. English parents' opinions were divided; some were skeptical of whether low to moderate drinking was associated with risks.
Conclusions: Practices and attitudes towards alcohol use during pregnancy and views on foetal rights and responsibilities of pregnant women differed in England and Sweden. Shared social norms around drinking may be shaped within the policy context of pregnancy drinking guidelines, determining whether women consume alcohol or not.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckx208 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Background: Psychoactive substance use in adults and second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure among children are leading contributors to sleeping problems. Despite this, there is limited data on how these exposures influence sleep patterns in informal settings. Our study assessed the associations between substance use, SHS exposure and sleep disturbances among adults and children in an urban informal settlement in Uganda.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol
January 2025
Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Background: There are no published Australian population-based data on serious COVID-19-associated maternal morbidity before and after widespread vaccination.
Aims: To compare COVID-19 infection rates, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and length of stay in hospitalised pregnant patients before and after achieving 70% state-wide maternal COVID-19 vaccination coverage.
Material And Methods: Population-based retrospective cohort study involving all hospital-admitted episodes for pregnant patients over 15-years-old with COVID-19 in Victoria from 1 March 2020 to 31 March 2022.
J Surg Res
December 2024
Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; Department of Surgery, William S. Middleton Memorial VA, Madison, Wisconsin. Electronic address:
Introduction: Obesity, defined as a body mass index ≥30 kg/m, is a major public health concern in the United States. Preventative approaches are essential, but they are limited by an inability to accurately predict individuals at highest risk of weight gain. Our objective was to develop accurate weight gain prediction models using the National Institutes of Health All of Us dataset.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Psychiatry
December 2024
Etlik City Hospital, Psychiatry Clinic, Ankara, Turkey.
Background: Low-grade systemic inflammation has been reported in many psychiatric diseases and is described as a non-severe state of the inflammatory response. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic psychiatric disorder characterized by symptoms of avoidance, re-experiencing and hyperarousal that develop secondary to a serious traumatic event. The trauma itself creates psychological and biological changes in the individual, apart from PTSD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlcohol
December 2024
Howard University College of Medicine, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Washington, DC 20059, United States. Electronic address:
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) during pregnancy can increase the prevalence of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-induced generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCSs) in developing rats. However, it is unclear whether phenobarbital (PB) can suppress these PAE-related seizures. To explore this knowledge gap, we investigated the effects of acute PB treatment on NMDA-induced seizures in postpartum rats, prenatally exposed to alcohol on gestational day 18 (GD18), at two developmental stages: day 7 (P7), the equivalent of pre-term neonates, and day 15 (P15), the equivalent of full-term neonates.
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