1. Alcohol is a neurotoxin. Forty years of research has shown alcohol to be a neurotoxin in utero. That means alcohol is a toxic substance to the developing baby; just like carbon monoxide and lead are toxic substances to adults. Alcohol kills fetal brain cells.
2. Developing babies can’t process any amount of alcohol. Growing babies lack the ability to process or metabolize alcohol through the liver or other organs. Alcohol crosses the placenta, and research has shown that, “One to 2 [hours] after maternal ingestion, fetal blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) reach levels nearly equivalent to maternal levels.”
3. Alcohol is more harmful to a developing baby than heroin or cocaine. According to The Institute of Medicine, “Of all the substances of abuse (including cocaine, heroin, and marijuana), alcohol produces by far the most serious neurobehavioral effects in the fetus.”
Retrieved from: http://www.nofas.org/2013/08/16/emily_oster/