Bibliographic Info
GuidelineWHO recommendations on maternal health: guidelines approved by the WHO Guidelines Review Committee, second edition. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025
Year of Publication2023
Issuing InstitutionWorld Health Organization
Recommendation
Status
Updated
Recommended in favor
Strong
Certainty of evidence
Low
Health-care providers should ask all pregnant women about their use of alcohol and other substances (past and present) as early as possible in the pregnancy and at every antenatal visit.
Notes and Remarks
- 1.Asking at every visit is important as some women are more likely to report sensitive information only after a trusting relationship has been solidly established.
- 2.Pregnant women should be advised of the potential health risks to themselves and to their babies posed by alcohol and drug use.
- 3.Validated screening instruments for alcohol and other substance use and use disorders are available (see Annex 3).
- 4.Health-care providers should be prepared to intervene or refer all pregnant women who are identified as using alcohol and/or drugs (past and present).
- 5.It was decided that despite the low quality of evidence of effect, the benefit – potential reduction of alcohol and substance use – outweighed any potential harms of a brief psychosocial intervention, which were considered minimal. Therefore the balance of benefits versus harms was clearly positive despite uncertainty about the degree of benefit. In addition, the burden of implementation was minimal.