Maternal Assessment of Infant Development: Associations with Alcohol and Drug Use in Pregnancy

Surveillance by parental concern has been advocated to assess whether formal child developmental testing is needed. To determine whether alcohol intake or illicit drug use in pregnancy is associated with differences in maternal perception of infant development, mothers with acknowledged alcohol and drug habits during pregnancy (N=120) were interviewed at 11 months' postpartum, within 1 month before infant testing by use of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Women with heavy alcohol intake during pregnancy (&gt3.5 oz absolute alcohol per week) were 15-fold more likely to overestimate their infant's mental development (P&lt0.05), whereas mothers using illicit drugs were 4-fold more likely to overestimate their infant's physical development (P=0.02). Given the frequent denial of substance abuse, we suggest that health care providers be cautious in accepting a lack of parental concern about a child's development and rely more heavily on formal testing, particularly in high-risk populations.