Feasibility of Using Motivational Interviewing to Decrease Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy

This article describes the development and testing of a motivational interviewing (MI) intervention to decrease alcohol use during pregnancy. The MI intervention addresses theory-driven components of behavior change, such as basic psychological needs satisfaction and autonomous motivation, to increase understanding of mechanisms which may evoke changes in pregnant women's drinking behaviors. A pilot study evaluated the feasibility of providing the intervention to a convenience sample of pregnant women self-reporting previous year alcohol use (n=15). The women completed questionnaires measuring alcohol use, levels of basic psychological needs, and levels of autonomous motivation to decrease alcohol use during pregnancy before and 2 weeks after participation in an MI intervention. The fidelity and integrity of the intervention were evaluated through the coding of audio-taped interviews with good to excellent adherence to MI achieved. Reliability of instruments measuring levels of basic psychological needs, autonomous motivations, and alcohol use was found with this sample. Preliminary findings demonstrated significant increases in levels of autonomous motivation to decrease drinking during pregnancy after participating in the intervention. These findings support the feasibility of using a theory-driven MI intervention to decrease alcohol use in future randomized clinical trials to determine the effectiveness of the intervention, as well as the mechanisms that contribute to its effectiveness.