You are in > manchester.com  > News > Babies 'unharmed' by bingeing

Health

Babies 'unharmed' by bingeing

14/11/2007

Pregnant women who binge drink alcohol infrequently may not harm their baby as a result, a new study suggests today.

Consistent heavy drinking throughout pregnancy has been linked with birth defects but it is not known what impact binge drinking, rather than regular heavy drinking, may have.

Binge drinking tends to be measured as over five units a day for women and over seven units a day for men.

Earlier this year the Department of Health advised that women avoid alcohol completely during pregnancy, changing previous guidelines which said one or two alcoholic drinks a week would not pose a risk to the baby's health.

For today's study the researchers analysed 14 reviews undertaken between 1970 and 2005.

Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they argue that there was little substantive evidence that binge drinking caused a range of problems, including miscarriage, stillbirth, abnormal birthweight or birth defects.

But they found that binge drinking during pregnancy might impair normal neurodevelopment such as reduced verbal IQ, an increased tendency towards delinquent behaviour, learning problems and poorer academic performance.

"It seems that at relatively low amounts of alcohol and infrequent occasions of binge drinking, there is no consistent evidence of adverse effects. However, greater frequency of bingeing or higher levels of alcohol consumption may increase the risk of adverse fetal effects," the researchers write.

"Considering the evidence of adverse effects from animal studies and hence the potential effects in humans despite the current lack of evidence, from a public health point of view we would suggest that it may be worthwhile recommending pregnant women to avoid binge drinking during pregnancy."