Drinking While Pregnant: An Inconvenient Truth The New York Times

The problems that can happen when babies are exposed to alcohol are grouped together and called fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). These include a wide range of physical, behavioral, and learning problems. Despite Australian guidelines advising abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy, a relatively high number of Australian women continue to drink alcohol while pregnant. While some call for greater advocacy of the need for abstinence, others have expressed concern that abstinence messages may be harmful to pregnant women and their unborn babies due to the anxiety they could provoke.

These studies represent two ends of the spectrum — one shows some scary possibilities about changed DNA, and the other suggests no ill effects. First off, take a deep breath and let go of any guilt or shame that you feel about the past. Next, continue reading to learn what the side effects can be — and most importantly, what you can do to ensure good health for you and your baby moving forward. Some also say that, in an effort to avoid frivolous lawsuits, doctors advise against alcohol while using a nudge-nudge-wink-wink to insinuate that a glass or two is fine. Using the information that is available, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other scientists estimate less than 2 cases of FASD in every 1,000 live births in the United States. When researchers look at the whole spectrum of disorders (FASD), the frequency may be as high as 1 to 5 out of every 100 kids in the U.S. and Western Europe.

How Much Alcohol is Dangerous

Second, alcohol consumption during pregnancy may have an indirect effect on fetal development by altering the mother-fetus hormonal connections [5]. According to a World Health Organization research on alcohol use, there is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Furthermore, it states that alcohol is the most prevalent teratogen and dangerous chemical and that there is no safe period or amount of alcohol to consume during pregnancy [6].

• For the past few decades, women have been urged to avoid alcohol during pregnancy.
• Other physical signs that go along with fetal alcohol syndrome include a small head, short nose, and problems with the way the heart or the joints are formed.
• Now you’re looking at two pink lines on a home pregnancy test and freaking out about the night out with your girlfriends that you enjoyed a few days ago.
• A 2012 Danish study, for example, found that low to moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy did not affect executive functioning among 5-year-olds.
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Our findings indicate that the importance of alcohol to the social lives and identities of Australian women importantly influence their decisions whether to drink alcohol during pregnancy or not. In contrast to an earlier study, these results suggest that Australian women perceive the risk of some alcohol consumption during pregnancy to be low [11]. As detailed in our previous published work on this sample, the women in our study were generally risk averse [24]. This risk aversion is evidenced in the findings presented here in terms of women’s stated concerns about the risks of eating foods that could cause listeria and with imbibing caffeine.

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Furthermore, sample weighing was used to overcome disproportionate sample allocations and non-responses. Because of these problems, children with FAS often have low self-esteem. They do best with an education program that is tailored to their needs.

• The mean age of the participants was 27.3 (± 6.8) years with an age range of 15–49 years.
• During early pregnancy, the fetus is already developing rapidly.
• Three mothers drank one to three drinks per week, and two mothers drank four to six drinks per week.
• One glass of wine, once or twice a week, was the maximum acceptable level of drinking reported by women.
• Not all children exposed to alcohol before being born will have ‘full’ FAS.
• It has several negative effects on maternal and fetal health [3].

Some communities have support programs where women help other women to stop drinking or cut down. Alcohol use (beer, wine, or hard liquor) during pregnancy is the leading cause of preventable birth defects and intellectual disabilities in the United States. In one 2015 study done in mice, researchers gave the animals alcohol at 8 days gestation — roughly equivalent to the early fourth week in a human pregnancy. They found that the offspring of these mice had changes to their brain structure.

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• These studies represent two ends of the spectrum — one shows some scary possibilities about changed DNA, and the other suggests no ill effects.
• Other studies suggest pregnant women who have an occasional drink don’t harm themselves or their baby.
• We now know that alcohol is a teratogen, meaning it can cause birth defects.
• The majority (67.9%) of the mothers were Christians and more than half of them (71%) were married and 2938 (75%) were from a rural area.

For the many women that drank some alcohol before they realized they were pregnant, this and other studies should reassure them. If you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant and cannot stop drinking, get help! Contact your healthcare provider, local Alcoholics Anonymous, or local alcohol treatment center. FASDs and other alcohol-related health conditions happen when you drink during pregnancy. Research is still being done to find out if alcohol harms a man’s sperm before a woman gets pregnant. If you are pregnant, or thinking about becoming pregnant, and find that it is impossible to stop drinking, talk with your doctor who can help.

What Is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)?

Drinking any amount of alcohol at any time during pregnancy can harm your baby’s developing brain and other organs. No amount of alcohol has been proven safe at any time during pregnancy. We now have new data in the United States telling us that rates of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (F.A.S.D.) are higher than we knew.

The published evidence does not support the latter as a likely outcome [16]. However, much of this debate has taken place in philosophical writing and opinion based editorials, without supporting evidence. Despite this lack of evidence, these concerns have been picked up and reported in mainstream media [17]. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a condition that develops in a fetus (developing baby) when a pregnant person drinks alcohol during pregnancy.

Results suggested that drinking — even fewer than two drinks per week — in the first trimester increased risk of complications, like lower birth weight and pre-term birth. And what about all those pregnant Frenchwomen who drink (while also apparently shedding their baby weight with ease and bringing up perfect bébés)? One study in Europe that surveyed pregnant women and new mothers during two months showed that only 11.5 percent of women reported consuming alcohol once they knew they were pregnant. Of these women, most (72 percent) had a single five-ounce glass of wine or less the entire pregnancy.

While guidelines were changing when these woman were pregnant and this rate may be declining [4], this discrepancy still raises questions about how and why women make the choices they do about their alcohol consumption during pregnancy. It also raises questions as to whether, and if so how, abstinence messages should be conveyed in ways that are both ethical and effective i.e. that will not provoke anxiety. Women in Chad, Namibia, Uganda, and Ethiopia are the world’s biggest alcohol drinkers, consuming 17.7 to 24.5 L of pure alcohol per capita per year [16].

What happens to babies whose mothers drink during pregnancy?

Things began to change in 1973, when fetal alcohol syndrome, or F.A.S., was formally recognized after a seminal article was published in The Lancet, a medical journal. F.A.S. is a constellation of findings that includes changes in growth, distinctive facial features and a negative impact on the developing brain. We now know that alcohol is a teratogen, meaning it can cause birth defects. Any amount of https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/is-it-safe-to-drink-alcohol-during-pregnancy/ can cause fetal alcohol syndrome. Damage to your developing baby can happen at any point during pregnancy.

It’s important to make an early diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome. If you’re currently pregnant and drinking alcohol, stop immediately to try to lower the risk of FAS. Because the data is cross-sectional, it may be impossible to establish causal relationships. Furthermore, because the study was based on secondary data, important variables such as the amount, type, and frequency of alcohol consumption among pregnant women were not evaluated.