Alcohol as a topic for consideration in prenatal education: nursing intervention implications.

The Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a serious health problem in today's society. Literature available dating from the time of Aristotle identified the health problem. Recognition of the severity of this problem has only developed since the 1970's. Research is now looking into the various aspects of FAS but the problem is complex. The simplistic component of FAS is that the causative factor in known and is preventable. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy results in FAS. Researchers and authorities in the field of FAS advocate prevention of the condition via education. This study was undertaken to consider the prenatal class as an educational opportunity for learning about alcohol and pregnancy and to determine the knowledge base of expectant parents prior to prenatal education. Components of education and the demographic data and the instruments utilized n the study were based on the PRECEDE conceptual framework. PRECEDE is the acronym for predisposing, reinforcing, enabling causes in educational diagnoses, and evaluation adapted from the health belief model. The design of the research study was descriptive and cross-sectional. The sample population included prenatal instructors and expectant parents from regions of the Midwest and Intermountain United States. Instruments utilized to obtain data were developed by the investigator. The tools used in the study included specific questionnaires for prenatal instructors and expectant parents, a scale to measure the degree of content presented in prenatal classes pertinent to alcohol use during pregnancy, and a true-false test to determine the knowledge base of expectant parents regarding use of alcohol during pregnancy. Findings from the study indicated that alcohol is a topic of discussion in prenatal education classes. Varying degrees of the topic of alcohol were discussed by the different prenatal instructors. The scores on the test for knowledge about alcohol in pregnancy were high in the sample studied. The reason for the high scores can be attributed to multiple factors: information regarding alcohol during pregnancy is available now through television, pamphlets, and various community and health resources. Several variables were considered in the design to determine if there were any correlations between the dependent variable of test scores and the independent variables. The expectant parents scored congruently high. No other factors were found to be significant. Nursing implications addressed the importance of prevention through education. Pregnancy should be avoided if alcoholic used; use of alcohol should be avoided before and during pregnancy. Other nursing implication and applications to the nurse practitioner role were discussed. Recommendations for further research were also included.