Pregnant? AAP Says Put Down That Glass of Wine

When it comes to drinking during pregnancy, mothers-to-be have gotten some pretty mixed messages over the years.

The March of Dimes has long discouraged women from drinking any alcohol while expecting. The CDC and the U.S. Surgeon General both say that no amount of alcohol is considered safe during pregnancy. What to Expect When You’re Expecting says it’s off the table too.

Yet, a 2010 study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that a glass of wine or two a week may be perfectly safe during pregnancy. A study at the University of Copenhagen suggested that children with mothers who drank moderately – about two drinks per week – experienced better mental health than mothers who abstained entirely.

Emily Oster, controversial author of Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong, insists that – based on her research – a limited amount of alcohol is harmless to mothers and their unborn babies. And then there’s France, where drinking during pregnancy is practically a cultural norm; in 2008, more than half of pregnant women reported indulging in a glass of wine on a regular basis.

Is An Occasional Glass of Wine Okay During Pregnancy? AAP Says No 

Despite suggestions to the contrary, America’s top health authorities still insist that no amount of alcohol is ever safe for pregnant women to consume. In 2012, organizations like the CDC, the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and the AAP Division of Children with Special Needs Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorders issued a Joint Call to Action to educate health care providers and the general public about the potential consequences of drinking during pregnancy.

“Some media headlines have interpreted such findings as it being safe for mothers to consume alcohol during pregnancy,” they write in reference to recent studies on light to moderate alcohol consumption.  

“However,” they continue, “no study has definitively concluded this. While future studies may continue to examine the thresholds of drinking during pregnancy and its effect on the unborn fetus, it is critical to encourage the safest choice to women, which is to completely refrain from alcohol while pregnant.  

In fact, in a new report published in the November 2015 issue of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics goes a step further, identifying prenatal alcohol exposure as the leading preventable cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities in children.

The comprehensive report, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, details the wide range of conditions and disorders that can result when a fetus is exposed to alcohol in the womb, concluding that “despite research evidence clearly documenting the spectrum of detrimental consequences from prenatal alcohol exposure, too many women continue to drink alcohol during pregnancy.”

Potential Consequences of Drinking During Pregnancy

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can lead to wide range of consequences, all of which fall under the umbrella term Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (or FASDs). Potential consequences include:

• Miscarriage
• Preterm Birth
• Stillbirth
• Birth Defects
• Learning and Behavior Problems
• Intellectual Disabilities
• Speech and Language Delays

So is it possible that an occasional drink during pregnancy is okay? Well, maybe. But experts in the field are clear that, given the current research and potentially devastating consequences, they aren’t ready to give the green light to any amount. And according to Dr. Janet Williams, one of the lead authors of this latest report, the evidence still speaks for itself.

 “The research suggests that the smartest choice for women who are pregnant is to just abstain from alcohol completely,” she says.