Alcohol During Pregnancy

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To drink or not to drink moderately during pregnancy

By Haley Overland

Two recent studies on drinking during pregnancy. Two conflicting conclusions. One says drinking moderately during early pregnancy is actually good for children; the other says it could have lasting implications for future generations. So, what’s a pregnant woman to do? To drink moderately? Not to drink at all?

To drink moderately….
Last month the obstetrics and gynaecology journal BJOG (British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) published a study concluding that women who had two to six drinks per week (or one drink per day) in the first three months of their pregnancy gave birth to better-adjusted children than those whose mothers consumed no alcohol at all.

The study was conducted over a 14-year period. Women’s drinking in early pregnancy was documented and their children’s behaviour was tested every two to three years. What they found was that children of women who had about one drink per day in the first three months of pregnancy were more likely to exhibit “positive behaviour” throughout childhood and adolescence. More specifically, as Monique Robinson, a doctor at Australia’s West Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research who worked on the study, told Reuters Health, “Children of light and moderate drinkers had less emotional and behavioral problems through childhood and adolescence.”

Not to drink at all…
Though Dr. Robinson was careful to caution that “the effects of a heavy alcohol intake to a light consumption of alcohol . . . are not equal,” the study is disturbing to many experts in the field.

Gideon Koren, Michelle Todorow and Sachi Sakaguchi, doctors from the Motherisk program at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, have responded to the “quite concerning” study in a yet-unpublished letter to Robinson and her fellow researcher et al., in which they take issue with the study’s sample group of mothers – “over represented by healthy resilient mothers” – and call the study alarmingly irresponsible:

…the suggestion that moderate alcohol consumption “fixes” maternal anxiety and hence renders a favourable stress-axis environment for the unborn seems like an alcohol advertisement from the 1970s, when the industry fought tooth and nail against the existence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
…It is extremely concerning that in Robinson et al. cohort, most women continued to consume alcohol at similar levels throughout their entire pregnancy. This represents an unacceptable climate that should alarm medical professionals and public health authorities.

Definitely not to drink….
To quash your hopes of drinking moderately in pregnancy even more, another study came out in late June warning that moderate drinking in pregnancy can cause male offspring to have lower sperm counts. Sons of women who drank more than four and a half alcoholic drinks a week while pregnant had one-third lower sperm counts (when they were older) than sons who were exposed to the least amount of alcohol.  

As always, women have the fate of future generations on their shoulders. No pressure at all…. Try not to get overwhelmed by all the studies and simply trust the experts: talk to your healthcare provider about drinking during pregnancy and to trusted experts like the dedicated people at Motherisk.