Researchers found that low to moderate alcohol use by pregnant women may contribute to minor changes in their baby’s prenatal development. Journal of Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research published the study.
“In exploratory analyses, the effect on gestational age was more pronounced in male infants, and for birth length, it actually was stronger in females,” Bakhireva stated.
She noted that these effects should be regarded with caution due to the study’s limited statistical power to undertake sex-specific analyses and the challenges in accounting for other contributing factors. According to Bakhireva, there are a lot of studies on the prenatal effects of high alcohol consumption, which is often defined as 14 drinks per week, or binge drinking, which is defined as four drinks or more on any given occasion.
“We know quite a bit from these earlier studies of heavy alcohol use about the effect on prenatal outcomes, especially preterm delivery and growth restriction, as well as neurodevelopmental outcomes, but we specifically focused on more moderate alcohol exposure because it’s much more prevalent,” she said.
Bakhireva explained that early pregnancy is a vital phase for organ formation in the developing fetus, making it a particularly sensitive time for alcohol consumption.
“Almost everybody drinks before they know they are pregnant, and risky drinking before pregnancy is predictive of drinking later on,” she said. “That’s a unique aspect of the study. We carefully looked at the patterns of drinking around conception and early pregnancy.”