Just a few drinks in pregnancy could harm baby

"Just a few drinks in pregnancy could harm baby", Independent, August
15, 2005,
Link: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/hea...icle305944.ece

Mothers who drink even low levels of alcohol during pregnancy could
permanently damage their children's intelligence, research suggests.

The study of seven-and-a-half-year-olds by scientists in Detroit found
lower IQ scores, and memory and problem-solving difficulties among
those who had had low-level exposure to alcohol during pregnancy.

The research, which the Department of Health says it wants to consider,
appears to challenge current British Government advice that pregnant
women can safely consume one to two units of alcohol a week.

It has long been established that serious problems such as severe
learning difficulties and physical abnormalities can occur when women
drink large amounts of alcohol during pregnancy, leading to foetal
alcohol syndrome (FAS).

Now American scientists say more research is needed to look at the
damage caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol at lower levels.

Julie Croxford, from Wayne State University in Detroit, said: "In the
past, much focus was placed on studying full-blown FAS. More recent
research has considered those individuals damaged by lower levels of
exposure. This is an important focus."

The study, published in the journal, Alcoholism: Clinical and
Experimental Research, looked at 337 African-American children who were
exposed to moderate to heavy levels of alcohol in the womb.

It found they were able to perform memory, number and other tasks as
well as other youngsters when these tasks were simple, such as naming
colours.

But when the children were pressed to respond quickly while having to
think about the response, their processing speed slowed down
significantly.

Researcher Matthew Burden, from Wayne State University, said: "Prenatal
alcohol exposure is often associated with slower reaction times and
poorer attention in infancy and some of these deficits may be at the
core of poorer academic performance and behaviour problems often seen
later in childhood.

"In cases of FAS, lower IQ scores are common, often reaching the level
of retardation. This is because alcohol consumed by the mother has a
direct impact on the brain of the foetus.

"However, full FAS is not required to see this impact =AD it is just
less obvious to detect across the array of exposures found in foetal
alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), which include effects of prenatal
alcohol at lower drinking levels."

Ms Croxford said: "This is likely to mean that these children may be
more and more challenged the older they get by the demands placed on
them within the school system and within their day-to-day social
interactions. This reinforces the current public health message that
women should not drink alcohol during pregnancy."

It is estimated that one baby in every 3,000 suffers from the full
effects of FAS, =AD others are struck with milder forms of symptoms.

Campaigners in the UK have said that the only definitely safe level of
alcohol during pregnancy is no alcohol at all, saying that recommended
limits are too high.

The Department of Health said: "Current DoH advice is that women who
are pregnant or who are trying to get pregnant should not drink more
than 1-2 units of alcohol per week.

"This guidance was reviewed as part of the Government's Alcohol Harm
Reduction Strategy in March last year and was found to be safe."

"We would be interested to see any further research into this area but
current evidence does not justify changing our advice."

The research echoes warnings from British scientists in the past year.