Alcohol should be completely avoided when expecting a child. Even ingesting a small amount can have harmful effects on the fetus, according to a new American study.
- Alcohol consumption must be prohibited throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding.
- Alcohol ingested by a pregnant woman passes directly into the baby’s bloodstream, and can cause a delay in the acquisition of language, writing, fine motor skills as well as behavioral disorders.
- Alcohol consumption, even low or moderate, can cause congenital anomalies, according to an American study.
Like cold meats or unpasteurized cheeses, the consumption of alcohol is not recommended during pregnancy. Alcohol absorbed by the mother-to-be easily crosses the placental barrier, and can cause a delay in the acquisition of language, writing, fine motor skills as well as behavioral problems. Serious complications, such as malformations and stunted growth, can occur from excessive alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
The risks of moderate alcohol consumption on the prenatal development of babies
It is therefore better to stop drinking alcohol throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding to preserve the health of your baby. To support this recommendation, researchers at the University of New Mexico recently claimed that low or moderate alcohol consumption could also lead to changes in babies’ prenatal development, such as shorter gestation length and a height at birth shorter than average. This work was published in the journal Alcohol Clinical & Experimental Research.
The scientists recruited 281 pregnant participants, the majority of whom were in the second trimester of pregnancy, over a ten-year period.. “Early pregnancy is a critical period for fetal organ formation, making it a particularly vulnerable time for alcohol exposure (…) We looked closely at alcohol consumption patterns at the time from conception and early pregnancy. Most participants significantly reduced their alcohol consumption or stopped it altogether when they found out they were pregnant. However, even when alcohol consumption was reduced, some deficits were observed in infants of both sexes.described Ludmila Bakhireva, professor and assistant dean for clinical and translational research at the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy.
Alcohol and pregnancy: different effects depending on the sex of the baby
During the study, the American team also established another observation: the effects of alcohol consumption on the baby’s development could be different depending on the sex of the unborn child. “In exploratory analyses, the effect on gestational age was more pronounced in male infants, and for birth length it was greater in female infants,” noted Ludmila Bakhireva. However, the specialist indicated that these effects should be taken with a grain of salt due to the limited statistical power of the study to conduct sex-specific analyzes and the difficulty of taking into account other contributing factors.
