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FAQ's
How much alcohol is too much?
A common question when talking about the
effects
of prenatal exposure to alcohol is “how
much alcohol is too much?”; “is
there a safe amount to drink
during pregnancy?”; and “will
social drinking affect
my baby?” The answer to all of
these questions is
that there is no known safe amount of alcohol to consume
during pregnancy. For this reason the U.S. Surgeon
General advises that all pregnant women abstain
from drinking alcohol throughout their pregnancy.
We do know that several factors contribute to significant
variation in how prenatal alcohol consumption
impacts the developing fetus. As outlined in
“
Drinking Patterns and Alcohol-Related Birth Defects”
(Alcohol Research & Health, Vol. 25, no. 3,
2001), these factors can include, but are not limited
to:
-
Maternal drinking pattern (how often, how many
drinks, what type of alcohol)
-
Differences in maternal metabolism (everyone processes
alcohol differently)
-
Timing of the alcohol consumption during
pregnancy (different parts of the fetus develop at
different times, but the brain develops throughout
the pregnancy)
-
Variation in the vulnerability of different
brain regions
Every child exposed
prenatally to alcohol is impacted differently. For
some, a relatively small
amount of exposure can result in significant thinking,
processing and behavioral deficits. For others
exposed to larger amounts of alcohol prenatally, the
impact appears minimal. Each mother and each developing
child are unique and are impacted differently
by exposure to alcohol—there is no way to predict
the postnatal outcomes, until it is too late and
the damage is done.
Statistics confirm that alcohol
abuse during pregnancy is the leading preventable cause
of
mental
retardation
in the United States. Why take a chance
with the health and well-being of your developing
baby? For this reason the best policy is no alcohol
during pregnancy.
If you are pregnant, don’t drink; if you drink,
don’t
get pregnant.
Posted Spring 2002