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Effects of Alcohol in Pregnant Women

Revised Health Guidance, doled out by the UK’s Department Of Health, is warning pregnant women or those trying to conceive to turn their backs on drinking.

The guidance clearly says that if mothers-to-be or those who are trying to be mothers are desperate for a drink, they should not have more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week. To minimise health hazards of the unborn child, they should, under no circumstance or excuse, indulge in binge-drinking.

This new guidance has been issued to provide stronger, more reliable advice for the entire nation and has been highly supported and appreciated by the four Chief Medical Officers.

A child can develop Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a disorder characterized by irreversible mental and physical birth defects, as a result of maternal consumption of alcohol, according to the doctors worldwide. With an occurrence rate of 1 in 750 live births, approximately 30 to 40 percent of all expecting mothers who drink beyond the recommended levels will give birth to a baby with mental retardation.

According to Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Fiona Adshead, the advice, simple and straightforward, aims at making women aware of the potential risks they are putting their foeti to, if they drink beyond the prescribed safe levels when pregnant.

Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, a charity committed to improving the quality of people’s lives by changing Scotland’s drinking culture, says: "For too long women across the UK have been given mixed messages about drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Alcohol Focus Scotland welcomes this clearer, consistent message which now needs to be effectively promoted by the Scottish Executive and health professionals.”

Authorities of Tommy’s, UK’s top-notch baby charity that believes every baby deserves the best start in life, point out that one in 20 pregnant mothers smoke cigarettes and one in 25 drink alcohol to relieve excessive stress, thus unknowingly risking brain-damage, facial deformities, premature births, low birth-weights and even miscarriages and still births of their unborn children.