The vast majority of media coverage surrounding alcohol and pregnancy debates the question, “Is light drinking during pregnancy completely safe,” and the conclusion is not always accurate. Whether drinking small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy affects the mind of the unborn child is a hot topic amongst researchers.
Recent research conducted in Denmark looked at the diet of women who sip and those who completely refrain from alcohol. According to the study, looking at data gathered on more than 63,000 pregnant women, the study found that women who said they drank a small amount of alcohol while pregnant were healthier in many ways, than the women who said they completely abstained from alcohol upon learning they were pregnant. They also found that the women who drank small portions of alcohol were more likely to exercise and have a healthier body mass index.
However, another study that was conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) of nearly 14,000 children found that pregnant women who drank less than a glass of wine per week, on average, were more likely than women who abstained, to have children with mental-health problems by the age of four (4). The link was stronger in girls than in boys, according to their 2007 report in the journal Pediatrics.
In another study of 500 children, Michigan researchers found that even one drink per week for moms-to-be was linked with worse behavior in seven (7) year-olds.
With the science being so uncertain, if you are a mom to be, why take the risk of drinking while pregnant?
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