Alcohol use during pregnancy in rural Lesotho: “There is nothing else except alcohol”
Abstract
Objective Reducing alcohol use during pregnancy is a pressing public health priority in Sub-Saharan Africa, but insight into the factors that influence prenatal drinking practices is lacking. This study investigated perceptions of, and motivations for, alcohol consumption during pregnancy and associated practices in a rural district of Lesotho. Methods A combination of purposive and snowball sampling methods were used to identify pregnant women and mothers with young children from the general community, as well as from alcohol-serving venues. Between September 2016 and March 2017, a trained data collector conducted in-depth interviews with 40 women on reasons why pregnant women drink, what they know about the risk of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, and perceptions of women who drink during pregnancy. Results Sixty-five percent of women (n = 26) reported that they consumed alcohol during pregnancy. Findings were clustered into four themes: 1) alcohol use in daily and cultural life; 2) alcohol as relief from stress and hunger; 3) alcohol's effect on the baby; and 4) access to information about alcohol consumption. Our data suggest that alcohol use was a prominent feature of daily life and a key part of traditional events and ceremonies. Other than potentially harming the baby through falling on their stomachs while inebriated, women did not mention other risks associated with prenatal alcohol use. Rather, there were prominent beliefs that drinking alcohol - home-brewed alcoh…
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In interviews and casual conversations, NGO workers and refugees in Palabek often remarked that poverty and unemployment led people to alcoholism.
“In interviews and casual conversations NGO workers and refugees often remarked, in a matter-of-fact manner, that poverty and unemployment led people to alcoholism -a causal dynamic well-established in policy and academic literature (see e.g., Marlow et al. 2021), and particularly widespread in the social worlds in which the lives of refugees and Ugandan workers alike were embedded (see e.g., Mein”
From Throwing therapy at the problem mental health and humanitarian intervention in Palabek refugee settlement, northern Uganda (2023) · cites this paper as Marlow et al. 2021
Cites
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Unrecorded consumption, quality of alcohol and health consequences
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Torre, C. (2023) · London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) · doi:10.21953/lse.00004557
- Authors
- Marlow, M., Christie, H., Skeen, S., Rabie, S., Louw, J. G., Swartz, L., Mofokeng, S., Makhetha, M., & Tomlinson, M.
- Affiliations
- Stellenbosch University (ZA)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- National University of Lesotho (LS)
- Queen's University Belfast (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Marlow, Marguerite
- ORCID
- Venue
- Social Science & Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-12
- Volume
- 291
- Pages
- 114482
- ISSN
- 0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3207775912
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R24 AA022919-01)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Prenatal Substance Exposure Effects
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Global Maternal and Child Health
- Keywords
- prenatal alcohol exposure, alcohol use during pregnancy, pregnant women, drinking motives, food insecurity, stress reduction, maternal health, rural Lesotho, poverty
- MeSH terms
- Alcohol Drinking, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Lesotho, Pregnancy, Qualitative Research, Pregnant People
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