Alcohol consumed during pregnancy passes to unborn foetuses via the placenta and can seriously impact foetal development.
Current medical advice – to avoid alcohol during pregnancy altogether – is the result of scientific research that has drawn links between heavy alcohol intake and brain structural changes, developmental issues and birth complications.
New research conducted by a team at the University of New Mexico and published in the Alcohol Clinical & Experimental Research journal has found that even low to moderate alcohol consumption by pregnant women may contribute to subtle changes in their babies’ prenatal development, including lower birth length and a shorter duration of gestation (time spent in the womb).
The Study and It’s Findings
The study involved monitoring 281 participants and their children over the course of 10 years. Most became involved during the second trimester and were followed – along with their children – during and after pregnancy.
The monitoring included looking at patterns of alcohol consumption during conception and early pregnancy, a window of time that is crucial for the formation of organs but is also a particularly vulnerable period for alcohol consumption as many women do not yet realise they are pregnant.
The results of the study suggest that even a moderate amount of alcohol consumption could have subtle but negative impacts, ranging from premature birth rates to low birth lengths. Even when consumption was reduced substantially or stopped altogether when women learned they were pregnant, deficits were still observed.
The research also found that the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on gestational age (the length of time a baby is in the womb) was more significant in male infants, and the effect on birth length was stronger in female infants.
Crucial Next Steps
Despite the results, the study’s lead professor Ludmila Bakhireva, MD, PhD, MPH, professor and assistant dean for Clinical and Translational Research in the UNM College of Pharmacy, cautioned that the findings – particularly those relating to sex-specific conclusions – should be interpreted cautiously due to limitations of the study and the challenges of accounting for other potential contributing factors.
Further to this, Bakhireva suggested that studies that combine larger samples should be utilised to replicate the latest results and further examine same-sex findings.
Nevertheless, the results of the study work to underscore existing messaging from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – that no amount of alcohol consumption during pregnancy can or should be considered ‘safe’.
