How bad is alcohol consumption while pregnant?

Alcohol may not be as detrimental to the health of a baby as originally thought. Researchers discovered pregnant women who drink one or two drinks a week do not harm their child’s behavioral or intellectual development.

However, mothers who drank heavily had children with much higher chances of having a hyperactive disorder or other developmental, behavioral, or emotional issues.

Additionally, heavy drinking has proven to significantly harm development of the baby and pregnant women are advised to drink very little or no alcohol during pregnancy.

The study, conducted between 2000-2002 is being analyzed further. Researchers explain how children of mothers analyzed during this study who drank two or less alcoholic drinks each week while pregnant, have not shown an increase or decrease in development until at least five years old.

Also, this study discovered girls were less likely than boys in terms of being developmentally impaired due to the pregnant mother’s alcohol consumption. Girls were, however, more likely to have emotional issues due to their mother’s alcohol drinking habits.

More research is still being conducted on this matter, but preliminary results reveal alcohol consumption in moderation may not severely hinder development of a child.