Pregnancy, births and maternity: risk factors during pregnancy

Smoking

Smoking during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Smoking can also reduce the likelihood of conception by increasing the amount of time it takes for a women to conceive and reducing sperm count in men.  

Data on smoking during pregnancy in Scotland are available: 

Women who are pregnant or planning to get pregnant can get more information from the NHS Scotland Ready Steady Baby website. 

Alcohol

The UK's four Chief Medical Officers recommend that alcohol is not consumed during pregnancy or while trying to conceive.  

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can lead to a wide range of development issues and physical disabilities including Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and specifically Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) (NHS).  

  • FAS can cause restricted growth, distinctive facial features and lifelong learning and behavioural problems.  
  • FASD encompasses conditions which may not have physical symptoms but can lead to problems with behaviour and learning. 

Drugs

Data on maternal drug use in Scotland are available:

  1. From our Drug misuse pages

  2. From SMR02 (a maternity inpatient and day case dataset).

Poverty

Living in poverty is detrimental to the pregnancy outcome, and is associated with preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction, and neonatal or infant death and development outcomes of the child.  

Pregnancy can also push women into poverty because of loss of employment income, childcare costs, inflexible work environments (Scottish Government), recent welfare reforms that penalise low income families (Public Health Scotland) and lack of universal maternity pay. 

Poverty and social disadvantage are also associated with increased risk of smoking and drug use during pregnancy.   

Mothers in low-income households were less likely to report drinking alcohol during pregnancy compared to those in high-income households.  

Reducing poverty in the population will improve outcomes for pregnancy in Scotland.    

Data on levels of poverty in Scotland, including during the first year of life, are available: