Safety of moderate alcohol during pregnancy

Health experts recommend that you avoid all forms of alcohol during pregnancy. There are numerous unanswered questions about how much alcohol is enough to cause birth defects  in a developing baby.

However it is known that pregnant women who drink excessively have high risk of having a child with Fetal alcohol syndrome FAS. Babies with FAS have a series of health challenges throughout life. They have low birth weight , have poor growth , encounter learning and behavioral problems as well as have some physical abnormalities.

FAS is the extreme and the result of drinking excessive alcohol during pregnancy . However a broader spectrum known as   fetal alcohol spectrum disorder FASD  affects many children whose mother drank various amounts of alcohol while pregnant . These children do not have all the physical features of FAS but do have learning and behavioral problems.

While recent research suggest that low amounts of alcohol consumption during pregnancy do not have any significant risk,  you have to know that these studies did not perform comprehensive formal testing of children or account for other home and maternal factors.

It is simply not known how much alcohol is safe to drink during pregnancy.  The amount that is safe may differ from woman to woman. This best solution is to avoid it altogether  during pregnancy .