Partners May Influence Pregnant Women’s Alcohol Use and Risk Factors for Infant Development

Newswise — The partners of mothers-to-be can influence the women’s drinking and depression during pregnancy, affecting their babies’ development, a new study suggests. The findings highlight the importance of partners’ role in reducing risk for expectant mothers. Pregnant women’s behavioral health is known to be influenced by their relationships with their partners. Partners’ higher substance use, and women’s lower relationship satisfaction, are associated with higher maternal substance use. Women who feel supported by their partners, in contrast, report less prenatal anxiety and depression and lower postpartum distress. Drinking and depression during pregnancy are each associated with multiple health problems, such as premature birth and delayed infant development. The study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research explores the role of partners, prenatal alcohol use, and infant outcomes together, aiming for a more comprehensive understanding of how these factors combine.

Researchers followed 246 pregnant women in Ukraine as part of the Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (CIFASD; www.cifasd.org), collecting data over time. All participants reported having a partner; most were married. In their first trimesters, the women reported on relationship satisfaction (frequency of quarreling, happiness with the relationship, and ease of talking with their partners), their partners’ substance use, and socioeconomic status. In the third trimester, the participants reported on their own drinking and depressive symptoms. The process involved at least one interview about their alcohol use around conception and recently. The infants’ mental and psychomotor development was assessed around six months. The researchers used novel statistical modeling to look for links between partners’ substance use, pregnant women’s relationship satisfaction, drinking, and depression, and infant outcomes.

The analysis found that pregnant women’s depressive symptoms and drinking were related to their relationships with their partners and to their partners’ substance use. More positive partner influence predicted women’s lower alcohol use in late pregnancy and fewer depressive symptoms. This applied even when socioeconomic status, which is linked to depression and drinking, was taken into account. Higher maternal alcohol use in pregnancy predicted poorer mental and psychomotor development in infants, though the mother’s prenatal depression did not. The study did not show a direct effect of partners on infant development, suggesting that their influence is on the mother during pregnancy.

The researchers conclude that maternal health and pregnancy interventions are likely to be more effective when partners are included, with benefits for mothers and babies. Interventions addressing partners’ substance use may help reduce pregnant women’s substance use too, and improve their relationship satisfaction, protecting against depression and benefitting infant development. The investigators noted that pregnant women’s depression and drinking may in turn affect relationship satisfaction and partners’ alcohol use. They recommend that future research include further analysis of substance use, and partners’ support specific to pregnancy.

Partner influence as a factor in maternal alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms, and maternal effects on infant neurodevelopmental outcomes. C. Kautz-Turnbull, C. Petrenko, E. Handley, C. Coles, J. Kable, W. Wertelecki, L. Yevtushok, N. Zymak-Zakutnya, C. Chambers, and CIFASD (p xxx).

ACER-20-4686.R1