Lifestyle habits and women's attitudes towards discussing them at a visit for contraceptive advice

Highlights • We used visits for contraceptive counselling as opportunities for examining women's actual life style habits with the main focus being placed on alcohol consumption. • Women with high-risk drinking habits were younger, more often tobacco users and more often planning for childbirth in the future, compared with women who did not display high-risk drinking behaviour. • Most women stated that no other caregiver during the preceding year except the midwife had discussed drinking habits with them. • A majority of the women thought that a discussion concerning alcohol habits at a contraceptive counselling session was important.