An important consideration in future health promotion programs is the finding that a substantial proportion of women who drink at binge levels in the three months before pregnancy also have binge episodes early in pregnancy. This is consistent with a review of 14 studies originating from the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Uganda which found that pre-pregnancy drinking is one of the strongest predictors of drinking in pregnancy [23]. More recent studies [24–26] from Australia and New Zealand show similar correlations, adding that pre-pregnancy drinking also predicts alcohol consumption straight after birth at a time when safe breastfeeding should be encouraged [26]. Further to this, the results of our study add weight to the importance of delaying onset of regular alcohol use and intoxication to prevent binge drinking in adulthood [27]. We found that women who began drinking regularly and/or were first intoxicated before 18 years of age have a substantial risk of being a binge drinker in the first trimester.
