Conflicting Advice

Here's the headline "Binge-drinking 'may not hurt the unborn'." Seems pretty clear, doesn't it? Problem is the article actually says this, "Less clear is the effect of occasional binge drinking, which amounted to about five drinks in one session in the studies Mr Gray and his team reviewed."

The important qualifier here is "less clear" because while this review of other research concludes that there is "little substantive evidence" that binge drinking caused problems (such as miscarriage, stillbirth, abnormal birth weight, or birth defects such as fetal alcohol syndrome) they did find this-

one study suggested binge-drinking could damage brain development resulting in reduced verbal IQ, learning problems and poorer academic performance.

Seems like a good reason not to binge drink but the researchers qualify it with-

"However, this study only counted women as bingers if they binged throughout pregnancy, not just on a single occasion," the researchers wrote.

The problem, of course, is that the effects of alcohol are not clearly understood and the recommendations not to drink much are based on that uncertainty- we're talking about a human being here so surely it's better to err on the side of caution? And have they clearly proven that a single binge session is fine? If so, at which stage of the pregnancy is it safe to binge drink? Is only one binge drinking session permitted throughout the pregnancy or are a few safe? The simple fact of the matter is that this study has conducted no original research on the problem, merely studied other research and, as seems clear, they have not actually provided any clear evidence on exactly how much one person can drink and at which stages of the pregnancy and still not cause any harm to their unborn child. In the absence of that evidence it seems equally clear that pregnant women should severely restrict their alcohol intake.

Then we come then a nice little bit of double-talk-

Animal studies had shown harmful effects from binge-drinking, which meant pregnant women should still take care no matter how much they consumed, Mr Gray said.

Seems clear enough but the researcher then follows that piece of advice with this-

At the same time, until researchers had more evidence, women who binge-drink on occasion should not fret unnecessarily about potential harm they were causing to their fetuses, he said.

So, which is it? Be careful of your alcohol intake or have the occasional binge session and not worry unduly about the effects on your unborn child? Can't have it both ways, can you? The article ends with this advice-

“Because researchers are not sure how much alcohol might cause harm most say it’s safest not to drink any alcohol during this time.”

In the UK, this article is from an Australian paper, the advice goes like this-

Nobody knows how much - or how little - alcohol can harm a developing baby, so some health experts (including the Royal College of Physicians, and more recently, the Department of Health) recommend that pregnant women play it safe by steering clear of alcohol. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends a limit of one or two units of alcohol, once or twice per week.

Worth bearing this in mind too-

Fetal alcohol exposure is the leading known cause of mental retardation in the Western world.

To clarify, here's an image of the brains of two six-week old babies. The one on the left was not exposed to alcohol, the one on the right belongs to a child suffering from Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.













At the end of the day it comes down to this- are a couple of drinks really worth the risk to your child?