Angela Onwuzoo
Pregnant women who refuse to stay totally away from alcohol but still engage in moderate drinking may give birth to babies with abnormalities, researchers from the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, United States, have said.
The researchers in a study published in the journal Alcohol Clinical & Experimental Research, found that even low to moderate alcohol use by pregnant women may contribute to their babies’ prenatal development, including lower birth length and a shorter duration of gestation.
The researchers said their findings underscore the message that no amount of drinking during pregnancy is safe.
The Lead Author and Assistant Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at the UNM College of Pharmacy, Professor Ludmila Bakhireva, said the study also found some sex-related differences in the effects of drinking during pregnancy on the developing baby.
“In exploratory analyses, the effect on gestational age was more pronounced in male infants, and for birth length, it actually was stronger in females,” Bakhireva said.
She cautioned that these effects should be interpreted with caution because of the study’s limited statistical power to conduct sex-specific analyses and the challenges of accounting for other contributing factors.
The author said their findings were based on three prospective studies conducted at UNM over the course of 10 years that followed 281 participants, most of whom were recruited in the second trimester of their pregnancies and then followed, along with their children for some time.
“There is a good deal of research on the prenatal effects of heavy alcohol use, usually defined as 14 drinks per week, or binge drinking, defined as four drinks or more per occasion.
“We know quite a bit from these earlier studies of heavy alcohol use about the effect on prenatal outcomes, especially preterm delivery and growth restriction, as well as neurodevelopmental outcomes, but we specifically focused on more moderate alcohol exposure because it’s much more prevalent,” she said.
Bakhireva further said, “Early pregnancy is a critical period for the formation of organs in the developing fetus, making it a particularly vulnerable window for alcohol exposure.
“Almost everybody drinks before they know they are pregnant, and risky drinking before pregnancy is predictive of drinking later on.
“That’s a unique aspect of the study. We carefully looked at the patterns of drinking around conception and early pregnancy.
“Most of the participants substantially reduced their drinking or stopped altogether once they learned they were pregnant.”
She noted that even with reduced alcohol there were some deficits seen in both male and female infants, however.
She emphasises that larger studies that combine samples across the country are needed to replicate the findings and examine sex-specific effects further.
According to her, the findings underscore messaging from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism — that no amount of drinking during pregnancy is safe.
“I think this study, as well as prior preclinical studies, show that even moderate alcohol use might have negative effects. The degree of negative effects might vary, and it is important to address alcohol use without the stigma often associated with it, but overall, if we try to encourage abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy, we will maximize positive health and developmental outcomes for the children.”
Maternal health experts also frown at any form of alcohol use during pregnancy, warning that it exposes babies to so many health risks.
Speaking, a Consultant Gynaecologist, Dr. Stanley Egbogu, told our PUNCH Healthwise that alcohol doesn’t serve any good to pregnant women saying, “What we advise is that they should abstain from alcohol.
Egbogu, who works at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Awka, Anambra, stated that at any level, alcohol was not good for the baby.
The gynaecologist decried the attitude of some women who underestimate the impact of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and still indulge in the act.
“Normally, if a woman has not been taking alcohol, most likely she will not take it during pregnancy. So, you have a situation where most women may have been taking alcohol before even they got pregnant.
“Alcohol affects every organ of the baby and might lead to a baby having a small head – microcephaly. It affects the heart, kidney, and liver of the baby,” he said.
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