- The ARC - California Edition -

Pregnancy and Maternal Alcohol Consumption

During the year of 1973 in the state of Washington, a research team clearly defined that maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy was severely damaging babies. In the 25 years since then, evidence has slowly been accumulated, and verified, that maternal alcohol consumption during the early months after conception can do serious permanent damage to the fetus of a pregnant woman.

In this period of time, there have been numerous arguments presented about how much drinking it takes to do the damage, and if it really does do damage, when does this drinking have to occur in order to do this damage, and how strong do the drinks have to be, and why all babies are not effected, and other arguments about such things.

Even today, some people still argue that it is only the drinker that consumes a lot of alcohol that risks damaging her child, OR, it is only the woman that is genetically susceptible to alcohol that ever has a damaged child. These points seem to be somewhat accepted by portions of the populous. But, it is also pretty well accepted that ALCOHOL AND PREGNANCY DO NOT MIX - PERIOD !

A research paper was recently published which had found that during the first trimester of pregnancy, even small amounts of alcohol (an ounce a day) might double a women’s risk of miscarriage. This is of concern to prevention advocates since during this same time period another survey type of study revealed that one out of every six pregnant women had reported to them that they had consumed alcoholic beverages during the months of their pregnancy.

So what are we to do? Suggestion: If you plan to get pregnant, or if you are pregnant – do not drink any alcoholic beverage. Seems to make sense to me.