Submission

AMA submission to the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee - Inquiry into effective approaches to prevention, diagnosis and support for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

In 2019, the AMA has updated its existing policy regarding the use of alcohol in pregnancy.  The AMA Federal council passed a motion in August 2019 "That the AMA support NHMRC guidelines that clinicians should advise women who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy that the safest option is to avoid alcohol entirely, based o the information that prenatal alcohol exposure may harm the unborn child and that no safe level has been established for alcohol consumption in pregnancy". This motion re-emphasises background information included in the 2016 Position Statement that "there is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy".  Medical practitioners fill a vital role in providing advice to women that are pregnant or planning a pregnancy about alcohol consumption.  Medical practitioners must be appropriately supported to hold these conversations sensitively and productively, while maintaining the evidence-based advice that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.