You may have heard that it’s okay to drink alcohol in moderation when you’re pregnant. Some women think that there is less risk during certain trimesters, and some pregnancy books even say that there’s no harm in having a drink or two a week while pregnant. Some studies have proven that.
But pediatricians are now saying that drinking any alcohol while pregnant can damage the developing fetus.
A new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics says that drinking any amount of alcohol is the leading preventable cause of birth defects and learning disabilities.
While you may not think your child can get fetal alcohol syndrome if you have a few drinks over the nine months–hey, you were still drinking before you found out you were pregnant!–there is a broad spectrum of problems that derive from drinking while pregnant, and some may be hard to associate with the alcohol.
It’s difficult to determine how many children are impacted by prenatal drinking, according to NPR, because there is such a broad range of issues that can result from the alcohol.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2011 and 2013 a survey found that 1 in 10 pregnant woman report consuming some amount of alcohol while pregnant. The groups most likely to drink while pregnant, according to the survey, include women between 35 and 44 years old; college graduates; and women who aren’t married.
The pediatricians say in their study that no amount of alcohol intake should be considered safe, there is no safe trimester to drink alcohol and that all forms of alcohol–including beer, wine and liquor–pose similar risks.
