Drinking during pregnancy is completely unrecommended as alcohol can cause not only a range of mental and physical birth defects in the baby but also lots of health issues in the future mother. Exposure to alcohol before birth leads to so-called fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, affecting up to 40,000 babies annually.
In the latest issue of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC investigates drinking rates among pregnant women, and finds about one in 13 pregnant women drink. Of those who said they drank, nearly 1 in 5 said they went on at least one binge – downing four or more drinks – during pregnancy.
Surprising or not, these data show a very worrying truth: an incredibly high number of pregnant women put their babies’ health at serious risk out of negligence or misinformation.
Why drinking during pregnancy is a no-no
Drinking during pregnancy endangers the growing baby in different ways. First, it increases the risk of miscarriage especially in women who are in their first trimester. Secondly alcohol consumption during the gestational period can cause severe brain damage in the baby. So unless you want your little one to have serious speaking, learning, reading and attention problems you should stop drinking immediately after finding out you’re pregnant.
Whenever you drink, alcohol passes from your bloodstream, through placenta, directly into your baby’s developing body. While this may not cause you any unpleasant symptom, your baby’s organism is not yet ready to breakdown sugars and to metabolize the other compounds in beverages, so he’ll most probably end up with lots of alcohol in his circulatory system.
This undesirable situation causes severe damage not only to the central nervous system of the developing baby but also on his heart and spine. Babies exposed to high amounts of alcohol during their intrauterine life being born with hearing and vision problems, small heads and incompletely developed brains. These babies usually show behavioral problems and mental disabilities as they grow older.
The facial features of these kids are also affected by drinking during pregnancy. Their eyes are small, their upper lip is very thin and the groove between nose and the upper lip is replaced with smooth skin. And the bad news is although these physical defects may not matter so much later in life, mental disorders and behavior problems caused by alcohol consumption can’t be completely healed regardless of the applied treatment.
According to a recent study taken on kids with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, a protective environment and a healthy family relationship in the first 7 years of life can decrease the symptoms of these disorders, leading to a normal behavior. However, concentration and attention problems as well as learning difficulties can still be present even in kids benefiting from excellent care and complex therapies.
Health problems are also experienced by infants whose moms drink small amounts of alcohol while breastfeeding, as compounds from alcoholic beverages get into breast milk, reaching inside the baby’s digestive system and from their into his bloodstream. These children are often slower in developing motor skills than healthy. This is another reason drinking during pregnancy or immediately postpartum is completely contraindicated.
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