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5 Steps for Alcohol Screening and Counseling

5 Steps for Professionals

Text Version

Doctors, nurses, or other health professionals should screen* every adult patient, including pregnant women, and counsel those who drink too much. Providers can help women avoid drinking too much, including avoiding alcohol during pregnancy, in 5 steps.

  1. Assess a woman’s drinking.
    • Use a validated screener (e.g., AUDIT {US}*).
    • Take 6-15 minutes to explain results and provide counseling to women who are drinking too much.
    • Advise her not to drink at all if she is pregnant or might be pregnant.
    • Come up with a plan together.
  2. Recommend birth control if a woman is having sex (if appropriate), not planning to get pregnant, and is drinking alcohol.
    • Review risk for pregnancy and importance of birth control use.
    • Discuss full range of methods available.
    • Encourage her to always use condoms to reduce risk of sexually transmitted diseases.
  3. Advise a woman to stop drinking if she is trying to get pregnant or not using birth control with sex.
    • Discuss the reasons to stop alcohol use before the woman realizes she is pregnant.
  4. Refer for additional services if a woman cannot stop drinking on her own.
  5. Follow up yearly or more often, as needed.
    • Set a time for return appointment.
    • Continue support at follow-up.

*Learn how to do alcohol screening and counseling at www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fasd/alcohol-screening.html.
SOURCE: Adapted from American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. www.acog.org/alcohol.

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