(RxWiki News) When a pregnant woman drinks a martini, her fetus is exposed to the alcohol. Researchers have just confirmed that even small amounts of alcohol could seriously affect the baby's health.
A recent study found that women who drank low levels of alcohol during pregnancy had an increased risk of having an underweight baby or a preterm birth.
These researchers found that, when women drank more than 20 milliliters of alcohol per week, the baby had a 100-gram birth weight reduction.
The researchers suggested that health care professionals advise women to not drink alcohol at all while trying to conceive or when pregnant.
The lead author of this study was Camilla Nykjaer, MSc, from the Nutritional Epidemiology Group in the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.
The study included 1,264 pregnant women from Leeds between the ages of 18 and 45 years old. All of these women were recruited from the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust between 2003 and 2006.
The women reported alcohol intake before pregnancy and during each trimester. They were divided into two groups: those who consumed an average of 20 or fewer milliliters by volume per week and those who consumed an average of more than 20 milliliters per week.
For reference, one portion of beer is 23 milliliters, one portion of cider is 20 milliliters, one portion of port and spirits is 10 milliliters and one portion of vodka kick (a premixed bottled beverage) is 15 milliliters.
A group of women who did not drink was used as the reference group.
The findings showed that 74 percent of the women reported drinking 20 or more milliliters of alcohol per week prior to pregnancy.
A total of 53 percent of the women reported drinking 20 or more milliliters of alcohol per week during the first trimester of pregnancy.
During both the second and third trimesters, 28 percent of the women reported drinking more than 20 milliliters of alcohol per week.
The women who drank fewer than 20 milliliters of alcohol per week during the first trimester had 1.7 times increased odds of having an underweight baby compared to the participants who did not drink during the first trimester.
The findings revealed that the women who drank more than 20 milliliters per week during the first trimester were twice as likely to have an underweight baby as the women who did not drink during the first trimester.
These associations fell significantly in the second and third trimesters.
The researchers discovered that the women who drank fewer than 20 milliliters per week during the first trimester were 4.6 times more likely to have a preterm birth compared to the nondrinkers.
Compared to those who did not drink, the women who drank more than 20 milliliters of alcohol per week during the first trimester had 3.5 times increased odds of having a preterm birth.
These associations were not significant for consumption before pregnancy and in the second and third trimesters.
Nykjaer and team concluded that even small amounts of alcohol consumed during pregnancy could potentially put the baby at risk for being underweight or being born preterm.
These researchers noted a few limitations of their study. First, the study population was small. Second, alcohol intake was self-reported. Lastly, the survey was initially designed to measure caffeine intake.
This study was published March 10 in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
The Food Standard Agency, UK, the Medical Research Council and the Rank Prize Foundation provided funding.