Doctors have always warned pregnant women not to drink alcohol because that would affect their fetus. However, some of them still tend to do it, wondering how much they should drink before the alcohol harms their babies. Recent research concluded that pregnant women should avoid alcohol, even if they’re on a special diet – like the Red Wine Diet.
According to a study published in the journal BMJ Open on Monday, there is not enough research to determine an approximated amount to avoid any damage, so it’d be better for pregnant women’s babies not to drink any alcohol at all.
Despite the fact that there are cases of women who drink while they are pregnant and fortunately don’t hurt their babies in any way, US experts still advise not to do it. In the United States – according to the CDC – at least 1 in 10 pregnant women, age 18 to 44, has had one drink of alcohol in the past 30 days.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Guidelines in the United Kingdom reported on last year that any women who suspects pregnancy, and is not using any birth control, should definitely avoid alcohol.
“There is a continual attempt, especially in Europe, to show that it is okay to drink quote unquote amounts of alcohol during pregnancy,” Dr. Amos Grunebaum, chief of labor and delivery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, who was not involved in the research, “Some people feel alcohol is something that is normal, but drinking alcohol even in small amounts does not do anything good. There is no safe amount for any pregnant women to drink because it is different from one person to another… The only safe amount is to not drink alcohol at all,” Newsweek reported.
Not a glass, not just one alcohol drop
Drinking alcohol might produce serious medical risks on pregnant women, like the possibility of miscarriage, stillbirth, and a series of symptoms associated with the fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
To prevent women about the risk of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, the National Health Service Greater Glasgow and Clyde launched a “No alcohol, no alcohol harm” campaign on Friday. However, according to the NHS, There have been “mixed messages,” and what the campaign wants to do is “put the issue to bed once and for all”
“The question is really, ‘What’s the chance that if I just have this glass of champagne at my sister’s wedding, is that going to be harmful?'” , said Dr. Robyn Horsager-Boehrer, professor and chief of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, who was not involved in the new study. “Nobody can quantify what that risk is. It is most likely low on the basis of the information we currently have, but you can’t be promised that and you don’t know that,” CNN reported.
Source: BMJ Open