Maternal health behaviours
Smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy are preventable risk factors for pregnancy complications. Supporting women to stop smoking and consuming alcohol can reduce the risk of adverse outcomes for mothers and their babies.
Smoking during pregnancy
Smoking during pregnancy is associated with poorer perinatal outcomes (AIHW 2023). For more information on smoking during pregnancy, see Smoking during pregnancy in Australia's mothers and babies.
Smoking is a known risk factor of severe disease in pregnant women infected with COVID-19 (Limaye et al. 2022).
Smoking rates have reportedly decreased globally since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (Almeda et al. 2022).
Figure 10 presents data on smoking during pregnancy.
Figure 10: Proportion of women who gave birth, by smoking status at any time during pregnancy, in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy and after 20 weeks of pregnancy and state and territory of birth, 2015 to 2021
Line graph shows maternal smoking status by state and territory of birth between 2015 and 2021.
Between 2015 and 2019, the proportion of women who smoked at any time during pregnancy decreased (from 10.4% in 2015 to 9.3% in 2019). Modelling showed that this was an annual decrease of 0.3 percentage points. The observed proportion of women who smoked at any time during pregnancy was 9.2% in 2020 and 8.7% in 2021, which was similar to the predicted proportions based on the modelling (9.1% in 2020 and 8.8% in 2021).
Data for modelling exclude 'Not stated' data and therefore may not match the proportions presented in the data visualisation above. For more information on modelling the trend over time, see Methods.
Women who lived in some geographical locations were more likely to smoke during pregnancy. Explore the map below (Figure 11) to view data on the number and proportion of women who smoked during pregnancy by PHN, remoteness and SA3.
Figure 11: Proportion of women who gave birth and smoked at any time during pregnancy, by selected geography, 2017 to 2021
Map shows proportion of women who smoked at anytime by selected geographies and years.
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy
Alcohol consumption in pregnancy can lead to poorer perinatal outcomes (AIHW 2023). For more information on alcohol consumption during pregnancy, see Alcohol consumption during pregnancy in Australia's mothers and babies.
There have been concerns that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the policies implemented to contain it, might have increased the rate of alcohol use and misuse in Australia (Tran et al. 2020). There is currently limited and mixed research on how the pandemic has influenced alcohol consumption in pregnant women (Kar et al. 2021; Smith et al. 2022).
Figure 12 presents data on alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Data on maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy were available for the first time in 2019. Data exclude New South Wales (as data are not available) and South Australia (as data are not available for the entire trend period).
Figure 12: Proportion of women who gave birth, by alcohol consumption and state and territory of birth, 2019 to 2021
Line graph shows maternal alcohol consumption status by state and territory of birth between 2019 and 2021.
The proportion of women who consumed alcohol in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy remained relatively stable between 2019 (2.3%), 2020 (2.8%) and 2021 (2.8%).
Over the same period, the proportion of women who consumed alcohol after 20 weeks of pregnancy remained stable (0.8% in 2019 and 2020, and 0.7% in 2021).
It was not possible to undertake linear regression modelling for alcohol consumption during pregnancy, as not enough years of data are available to establish a baseline trend. For more information on modelling the trend over time, see Methods.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2023) Australia’s mothers and babies, AIHW, Australian Government.
Almeda N and Gomez-Gomez I (2022) ‘The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on smoking consumption: A systematic review of longitudinal studies’, Front Psychiatry, 13:941575, doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.941575.
Kar P, Tomfohr-Madsen L, Giesbrecht G, Bagshawe M and Lebel C (2021) ‘Alcohol and substance use in pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic’, Drug Alcohol Depend, 1(225):108760, doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108760.
Limaye MA, Roman AS, Trostle ME, Venkatesh P, Martinez ML, Brubaker SG, Chervenak J, Wei LS, Sahani P, Grossman TB, Meyer JA and Penfield CA (2022) ‘Predictors of severe and critical disease In pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2’, J Matern Detal Neonatal Med, 35(25):7536-7540, doi:10.1080/14767058.2021.1951216.
Smith CL, Waters SF, Spellacy D, Burduli E, Brooks O, Carty CL, Ranjo S, McPherson S and Barbose-Leiker C (2022) ‘Substance use and mental health in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic’, J Reprod Infant Psychol, 40(5):465-478, doi:10.1080/02646838.2021.1916815.
Tran TD, Hammarberg K, Kirkman M, Nguyen HTM and Fisher J (2020) ‘Alcohol use and mental health status during the first months of COVID-19 pandemic in Australia’, J Affect Disord, 1(277):810-813, doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.012.