Would you drink alcohol while pregnant? Photo credit: Mestreech City
The background
Moderate drinking during early pregnancy does not harm a baby’s development, according to new research from Denmark. Current UK guidelines advise pregnant women and those trying to conceive to avoid alcohol. But the Danish study suggested having one to eight drinks per week is not harmful – and neither is the occasional binge.
NHS: Don’t drink while pregnant
“The Department of Health recommends that you avoid drinking alcohol if you’re pregnant,” said the NHS Choices website. “If you drink alcohol when you’re pregnant, it passes to your unborn baby through your placenta. Your baby can’t process the alcohol as fast as you can, so is exposed to more alcohol for longer than you are.”
Caution still advised
“Heavy drinking during pregnancy is known to be linked to miscarriage, foetal alcohol syndrome and low birth weight,” pointed out the BBC. The study found that more than 9 drinks per week while pregnant does have an impact on children’s neurodevelopment. “This does not mean that women can use this as an excuse to indulge in more than the recommended amount in the UK,” Patrick O’Brien, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told the BBC. “This evidence suggests that the UK guidance is erring on the side of caution – but that’s sensible in pregnancy.”
When it comes to alcohol, size matters
“For the purposes of the study, one drink contained 1.5 British units of alcohol – roughly that in a small (125ml) glass of medium-strength white wine,” noted Stephen Adams in The Telegraph. Researchers may have found that binge drinking in early pregnancy is not linked to developmental problems, but “in this study women were classed as binge drinkers if they had drunk five or more small drinks on as little as one occasion. Their classification meant a woman who had just two large (250ml) glasses of strong red wine, on a single evening, would be classed as a binge drinker.”
Good news for accidental drinkers
According to study co-author Professor Ulrik Kesmodel, of Aarhus University Hospital, “newly pregnant women were often concerned their baby had been conceived at a time when they may have been binge drinking,” reported The Daily Mail. “These findings, which were unexpected, should bring some comfort to women if they were drinking before they realised they were pregnant,” Professor Kesmodel said.
