Moreover, definitions of light, moderate and heavy drinking can vary enormously. Investigators who consider light drinking to be up to a drink a day tend to conclude that the practice is more harmful than those who say light drinking means up to one drink a week. (The alcohol content in “one drink” can also differ.) And many studies are based on an “average” number of drinks per time interval, which can lump together dramatically different drinking patterns—for example, imbibing one a week and bingeing on five in one night in a month. And yet, Day says, “there's a lot of literature that shows that binge drinking may have a bigger effect.” One 2009 study, for example, tied a single binge during pregnancy to hyperactivity and attention problems in children. Most studies of periodic light drinking, on the other hand, find that it has no effects.
Teasing Out the Truth
Because individual studies so often conflict, coming to a consensus about how much alcohol—if any—is safe for an expectant mother is a tall order. Nevertheless, one psychologist couple, Sandra and Joseph Jacobson of Wayne State University, has assessed a good deal of the published literature in an attempt to answer the question. They say that no obvious neurobiological deficits have been detected in children whose mothers consume less than one drink a day during pregnancy. Still, the data do not prove that a drink a day in pregnancy is without effect, Sandra Jacobson warns; it could be that researchers have not been looking at the right outcomes or that their tools are too insensitive to pick up any changes.
Gray believes the latter to be true. Although he and his colleagues have found that moderate drinking during pregnancy (which they define as an average of two to six drinks a week) has no overall effect on child IQ at age eight—the kids of the drinking moms in his cohort actually had higher IQs than the abstainers' kids—they did find, using a new genetic technique, some potential for harm.
Humans have multiple genes for proteins that break alcohol down into harmless by-products. Some people have variations in these genes that cause alcohol to linger in their bloodstream. In a November 2012 paper Gray and his colleagues reported that the more changes in these genes children of maternal drinkers have, the lower their IQs are. (The effect is weak; the IQs of children with four genetic differences were only 3.5 points lower than those of kids with two.) More important, however, the gene variations have no effect on the IQ of children born to nondrinking women, suggesting that there is at least a minimal danger to prenatal drinking for certain individuals.
Because of such findings and all the other uncertainties, policy makers are unlikely to ever give the green light to occasional drinking during pregnancy. “We will never, ever, ever know how much is safe for every individual,” says biologist Kathleen K. Sulik of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. What is harmless for a woman of one race, weight, nutritional status and genetic background may be dangerous for another. That said, the literature is reassuring to the many women who socially drank before realizing they were pregnant and to those who, like me, had one celebratory glass.
This article was originally published with the title To Drink or Not to Drink.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo amount of alcohol is ever safe for anyone. And this article points out the addiction of even expecting mothers. Why is it so important that she have a drink? She has all the things that are safe, that are good for her and taste good (alcohol does not taste good - watch a child try it for the first time. Of course the wine addicts claim that wine tastes good, but take a big slug of it and see if you don't choke!)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=moderate-drinkers-less-li
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"... have found that it may help some people survive after heart attacks."
There are others on SA but they're now paid... so no point quoting them. Lots of other info on the web, but I'll be nice to SA.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=in-us-fewer-die-of-heart-disease-bu-2008-12-16
"The bad news: heart disease is still the nation’s top killer"
Sorry, you're wrong. We have evidence that moderate drinking reduces heart disease (much stronger evidence that it causes harm) and heart disease is a rather significant risk. Top of the list, actually. Balancing the gains verses risk for pregnant women is an important question.
Oh you poor dear. You dared to broach the taboo of drinking any alcohol while pregnant and actually admitted to a glass of wine while pregnant. The hate messages you are going to receive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI discovered while pregnant that there were a ton of dietary rules I was supposed to follow. I should eat right, exercise, not drink, etc.... Yet when I complained about pitting edema and my resting heart rate doubling ... "well there there dear, you're ok to work full time while only being physically able to rest 4 hours a night because you're so uncomfortable". No one seemed to take seriously that I was so out of breath (while SITTING) that I had to sneak out of the office to a restroom with a cot behind a screen and lay down so that I could breathe. Luckily I had a co-worker who covered for me.
And geez my baby was born early. I was the only one not surprised because I knew my body could not take it anymore.
If all the pregnancy experts would shut up about diet and promote reduced work hours for people in their third trimester and a policy that allows for women to start their maternity leave before they start their labor, I bet we would see more babies carried to term and healthier newborns. My German cousin was BRAGGING how she was still working part time at 38 weeks. Um try working until you start labor. And finish that task before driving to the hospital.
But God forbid you have a glass of wine. Because there is no chance it will lower your stress during a time when people are expecting way too much from you physically.
The way we treat pregnancy and maternity leave in the Country is such BS. Try searching the web and reading advice given to pregnant women in other countries. It's much more gentle. (ex. I read a UK advice column that recommended asking your employer if you could arrive late every day and leave early). Oh and they have lower infant mortality rates.
I say have that drink (that ONE) drink. And take a load off.
Sorry jimmywat. The many pejoratives in your comment indicate that pregnant or not, you are what they used to call a teetotaler. You seem to think that all drinking is an addiction. It is not, and occasional drinking (especially of red wine) is not only not harmful, but probably beneficial.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe idea that a glass of wine every now and again is harmful during pregnancy seems to be almost an uniquely American concept. It's ridiculous. In many European countries, wine is imbibed routinely at dinner. Even by pregnant women. Doesn't seem that there is a greater incidence of negative alcohol-related effects in Europe compared to the US. Interesting also, that the Copenhagen Study found no deleterious effects of even moderate drinking during pregnancy, while the US Study did.