Should women abstain from drinking alcohol during pregnancy?

Yes
No
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    2/26/2008 12:27:44 PM

    Going with Geoff's suggestion: Should women abstain from drinking alcohol during pregnancy?

    Lets take out the "any"...

    2/25/2008 4:43:46 PM

    take out 'any' and this issue is probably good.

    2/21/2008 9:58:31 AM

    Fair enough. Nice issue.

    2/20/2008 9:45:39 AM

    Almost everybody agrees that binge drinking can be very detrimental to a pregnant woman's baby. However, there have been several organizations that have said that small amounts of daily alcohol intake is absolutely fine.


    From wikipedia

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    The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists conducted a study of over 400,000 women, all of whom had consumed alcohol during pregnancy. No case of fetal alcohol syndrome occurred and no adverse effects on children were found when consumption was under 8.5 drinks per week. [52] A review of research studies found that fetal alcohol syndrome only occurred among alcoholics. No apparent risk to a child occurred when pregnant women consumes no more than one drink per day. [53] A study of moderate drinking during pregnancy found no negative effects and the researchers concluded that one drink per day provides a significant margin of safety, although they did not encourage drinking during pregnancy. [54] A study of pregnancies in eight European countries found that consuming no more than one drink per day did not appear to have any effect on fetal growth. A follow-up of children at 18 months of age found that those from women who drank during pregnancy, even two drinks per day, scored higher in several areas of development. [55] An analysis of seven medical research studies involving over 130,000 pregnancies found that consuming two to 14 drinks per week did not increase the risk of giving birth to a child with either malformations or fetal alcohol syndrome. [56]

     

    In the United States, the Surgeon General recommended in 1981, and again in 2005, that women abstain from alcohol use while pregnant or while planning a pregnancy, the latter to avoid damage in the earliest stages of a pregnancy, as the woman may not be aware that she has conceived.[9]

     


    From the Daily Mail:

     

     

    Confusion over whether women can safely drink during pregnancy deepened yesterday with new guidance stating that a small glass of wine a day is okay.

     

    The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said that women can drink up to 1.5 units of alcohol a day without harming their unborn baby.

     

    This contradicts Department of Health advice that mothers-to-be should not drink at all and will leave women wondering which set of 'official' guidelines to follow.