While you may have a sneaking suspicion that one glass of wine is not going to damage your baby beyond repair, few if any American medical professionals seem willing to go on record saying as much. Most authorities are unequivocal on the topic: "Just don't do it." Studies have shown that drinking while pregnant may increase your child's future risk of alcoholism, and that as little as two glasses of wine per day may cause fetal alcohol syndrome (symptoms include facial abnormalities, low IQ and hyperactivity). Some medical textbooks still condone light alcohol intake during pregnancy, and many perfectly normal adults had mothers who had the occasional drink during pregnancy. While doctors like Karen Filkins, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA School of Medicine, say there is likely no reason to panic if you got a little tipsy at a party before you knew you were pregnant, there are no known lower limits of safety for alcohol intake while pregnant. So for those who want to be on the safe side, abstinence might be the only answer.
DON'T DO IT: Dr. Greene "Alcohol During Pregnancy"
The first trimester of pregnancy can be a vulnerable time. Some medicines taken during that period can have catastrophic effects on the baby. The third trimester is generally safer. Evidence published in the February 11, 2000 issue of Science suggests that drinking alcohol even once during the third trimester can permanently damage the brain of a baby. Alcohol has its biggest effects when the synapses (connections) of the brain are being formed — during the last trimester of pregnancy and the early childhood years. When the developing baby is exposed to alcohol for even a few hours, a number of brain cells and synapses are permanently deleted.
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Alcoholic beverages have been a part of human civilization from the very beginning. Only in the last 28 years has it become clear that maternal alcohol consumption has many negative effects on the developing baby within. And your brothers are 30 years old.
The first scientific paper suggesting these harmful effects of alcohol came out of France in 1968. This new idea was not widely accepted. Then, in 1973, an independent group (Jones, et al. Lancet 1:1267, 1973) published a study detailing the patterns of malformation found in the offspring of alcoholic mothers. The mounting evidence was persuasive, and the newly recognized entity was named fetal alcohol syndrome.
Alcohol is now recognized as the most common major destructive environmental agent to which a fetus is likely to be exposed. It is directly responsible for 10–20% of mental deficiency with IQ's in the 50–80 range, and one in six cases of cerebral palsy.
Infants with fetal alcohol syndrome tend to exhibit poor growth and have small heads. The average IQ for those with full-blown fetal alcohol syndrome is 63. Affected children tend to be irritable babies and hyperactive children (this hyperactivity can improve over time). They characteristically have short noses and thin, smooth upper lips. Their small upper jaws tend to cause dental problems and repeated ear infections. Small fifth fingernails can be a telltale sign. Cardiac and joint problems are also common.
Most of the children with full-fledged fetal alcohol syndrome were born to alcoholic mothers, but milder features of the syndrome are reliably detectable in women who consume as little as two drinks per day. It's a sobering thought that drinks consumed 30 years ago are still affecting your brothers every day of their lives. It's also inspiring. The choices we make do make a difference. Each decision creates ripples that travel forward throughout our lives. We have many, many opportunities to create long-lasting positive influences for our children. Pregnant women, in particular, can give their children a tremendous gift by avoiding alcohol while their babies grow within them.
FOR REAL, NOT EVEN A GLASS OF WINE: Dr. Sears "Avoid Alcohol"The harmful effects of alcohol on the developing baby were recognized in the early 1900s, when physicians observed an increase in the number of malformations occurring in babies born nine months after certain European drinking festivals. Unfortunately, any alcohol you drink will get into your baby's blood, just as it does into yours — and at the same levels.
Drinking can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome. Heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a disorder encompassing a variety of abnormalities. FAS babies are lighter, shorter, and have smaller brains than normal babies. Sometimes their brains are malformed, and they may suffer mental retardation as a result. Babies with fetal alcohol syndrome have unusual facial characteristics — their eyes appear smaller than usual, their nose is short, their upper lip is thin, and they may have abnormalities of the hands, feet, and heart.
Drinking Can Lead to Low Birth Weight and Even Miscarriage. Studies show that maternal alcohol consumption can also cause pregnancy complications such as miscarriage, low birth weight, and pre-maturity. Like smoking, alcohol's most harmful effects are on brain development. The effects of maternal drinking on the baby have been dubbed "a life-long hangover."
What about an occasional glass of wine? While one occasional glass of wine with dinner may not be as dangerous, knowing how much is too much is a question no research has answered. Studies show that like smoking, alcohol has a dose-related effect. This means the more alcohol mother consumes, the more damage her baby is likely to suffer. Studies also demonstrate that both binge drinking (five or more drinks on one occasion) and regular drinking (an average of two drinks per day throughout pregnancy) definitely harms babies. (One drink means one ounce of hard alcohol, one 8-ounce glass of wine, or one 12-ounce glass of beer.) Obviously, the riskiest time to drink an alcoholic beverage is during the first trimester, compared to the risk at 36 weeks, when babies' organs are fully formed. An occasional, single glass of wine or beer in the last month is unlikely to harm your baby.
Best to refrain completely. It's important to rely on your common sense, as well as scientific studies. Perhaps the safest way is to refrain from drinking alcohol during your pregnancy.
SERIOUSLY, UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR KID TO BE A DRUNK: Media India "Mother's Drinking May Increase Child's Alcoholism Risk"Children born to moms who drank during their pregnancy are at increased risk of drinking problems by the time they are 21, a new study finds.
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The participants' mothers were also asked how often and how much they drank at any given time. At 21 years of age, 25 percent of the children had some kind of alcohol problem, the researchers said. Of these, 13 percent said they developed the problem before they were 18, and 12 percent said they developed the problem between 18 and 21, Alati's team found.
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" Our findings support a biological contribution to the origin of alcohol disorders and suggest that greater attention should be given to the role of the programming effect of in utero alcohol exposure to the development of alcohol disorders in adulthood," Alati's group concluded.
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" The major potential problem in interpreting these findings is the possibility, unexamined in this study, that genetic factors that influence maternal drinking may also be present in the offspring and contribute -- -- in addition to, or via, an interaction with the increased exposure to alcohol to the offspring's drinking behavior at age 21," Williams said. However, "whatever the mechanism eventually turns out to be, these findings make a strong case for not drinking during pregnancy," Williams said.
DRUNK AND DEFORMED: NBC "New Study Says Even One Drink At Conception Could Be Harmful"" Eighty percent of obstetricians tell pregnant women that it is OK to drink during their pregnancy, but we know that cannot be". . .
CRT study said even one drink can damage a baby, so it's safest if women stop drinking completely once they start trying to conceive." Any alcohol use at all during pregnancy produces about a three-times increase in risk for delinquency long term," said Chasnoff . . . Children born with fetal alcohol syndrome usually experience growth retardation, unusual facial features, and mental retardation.
Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University found that only 14 of the 81 medical textbooks reviewed had consistent recommendations not to drink. In textbooks published since 1991, only 7 of the 29 consistently recommended no alcohol during pregnancy.
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Dr. Karen Filkins, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA School of Medicine, said she wasn't "totally surprised" by the study's findings. "I think there is a hesitation to put something so strong like banning drinking during pregnancy in the textbook," she said.
Filkins added, "I think textbooks should discuss it the way I do. For those who have had inadvertent exposure, there is no reason to panic. However, there is no known lower level of safety. The policy and the stance should be 'no alcohol during pregnancy.' But the textbooks ought to address both the 'no-alcohol' policy and the inadvertent-alcohol situation."
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The study is published in the July 2002 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Reference: Loop, K. Q., and Nettleman, M. D. Obstetrical textbooks: Recommendations about drinking during pregnancy. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2002, 23(2), 136–138.