Alcohol Use During Pregnancy: U.S. Data, 2021–2024

Alcohol use during pregnancy remains a serious public health concern in the United States. There is no known safe amount of alcohol, no safe time and no safe type of alcohol to drink during pregnancy.

Survey results, 2021–2024

Among pregnant women in the United States aged 18–49, during 2021–2024:

Drinking was more likely to be reported by pregnant women who had frequent mental distress — 14 or more days of poor mental health in the past 30 days — and by women living in certain regions of the country.

Strategies in clinics and communities can help reduce drinking during pregnancy and the harm that comes with it.

Where CDC's data come from

CDC describes patterns of alcohol use among pregnant women from several sources:

• Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) — a telephone survey of adults aged 18 and older that tracks health risk behaviours nationally and state by state, run by CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
• National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) — conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, it measures how common alcohol, tobacco and illegal drug use are, their patterns and their consequences, among people aged 12 and older.
• National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) — a yearly nationwide household survey of the U.S. civilian population not living in institutions, run by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics to produce national estimates of many health indicators.
• Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) — CDC software that estimates deaths caused by alcohol and the years of potential life lost to it.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Data and Statistics on Alcohol and Pregnancy." https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol-pregnancy/data-research/facts-stats/index.html
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