Scientific research: Alcohol consumption in the early stages of pregnancy was not associated with perinatal maternal and infant risk

In a new study that is bound to raise questions and controversy, an international team of researchers claims that pregnant women who drink alcohol for the first three months or more do not put their babies at risk of premature birth or low birth weight, nor do they increase the risk of complications of high blood pressure during pregnancy.Dr Fergus McCarthy
and colleagues from Ireland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia compared the results of the births of
5628,
pregnant women who were first pregnant between
2004 and
and
2011 and
. More than half of pregnant women said they had been drinking in the first three months of pregnancy. Some
(19%)
Claims that they drink occasionally. Twenty-five percent of pregnant women have a low alcohol intake, or
3
to
7
cups of
(
"one glass" is defined here as a glass of wine or a bottle of beer
)
with slightly less than
12
ounces). In
15%
drink more than seven drinks a week.the proportion of premature births, low birth weight or small weight and pre-eclampsia (a potentially life-threatening condition in which pregnant women have high blood pressure) is very similar to the type of alcohol consumed.study did not assess the effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy on post-birth development. The findings were first published online and later published in the October issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.the potential harms of drinking during pregnancy women have been asked to avoid drinking alcohol during pregnancy for decades. Respected medical groups such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal College of Women's Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have pointed out that women should not drink any alcoholic beverages during pregnancy. The main reason for this is that heavy alcohol use during pregnancy has been associated with fetal alcohol syndrome
(FAS)
, a long-term, irreversible condition.babies
with
FAS may be born prematurely. They are usually underweight and stunted. Some of these babies have special facial features, such as thin upper lips and small open eyes, or shorter people with a flat nose. Other signs
fasc
fascons include a small head, a short nose, heart problems, or joint formation problems.children
children
with THEFAS are more slow to learn language skills than other normal children. When they reach school age, they often have learning disabilities, inattulation, poor memory and ADHD. They are more likely to have poor coordination and problem-solving skills. Some children also have difficulty making friends with other children. All these problems will make their school life quite difficult., despite such clear advice, as many as half of women drink alcohol during pregnancy.put into practice medical evidence to support strict withdrawal from alcohol during pregnancy
?
is not very clear. Recent studies have shown that occasional drinking by pregnant women does not harm themselves or their babies. For example, a
danish study in
2012 found that small or moderate amounts of alcohol consumption during pregnancy did not affect the executive function of children
5
years of age. Executive function is an all-enshroned term that describes the ability to execute activities such as planning, organizing, strategy, remembering details, and managing time., moderate drinking means drinking no more than one drink a day.it's not clear how much alcohol is needed to cause the problem, the best advice is that women who are pregnant or likely to get pregnant should avoid alcohol intake.many women don't know they're pregnant until they've been pregnant for a while. Do you know that drinking alcohol hurts their children while they're pregnant
?
won't. They almost certainly won't hurt the unborn baby.if you want to get pregnant you should avoid all
,
't everyone agrees. Some highly regarded medical institutions, such as the British Department of Health, have shown that it is acceptable to drink one alcoholic beverage at a time, several times a week during pregnancy.evidence suggests that the advice to strictly abstring from alcohol during pregnancy seems extreme. Is it safe for pregnant women to have a glass of wine or beer once or twice a week? I don't think we'll see that too soon.