Pregnant women should not touch a drop of alcohol, because there is no evidence of a “safe” threshold, doctors have said. Experts in paediatrics and pregnancy writing in the BMJ, said women planning a family were being given too much “conflicting advice” which could put their child at risk. Mary Mather, a retired paediatrician, and Kate Wiles, a doctoral research fellow in obstetric medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said the “only ethical advice that can be given is complete abstinence from alcohol in pregnancy”.
Babies can suffer from foetal alcohol syndrome, mental retardation, development and behavioural abnormalities, and low birth weight, if they are exposed to alcohol in the womb. Women drinking, the authors said, were facing a “contradictory, confusing barrage of mixed messages” about how to approach pregnancy.. ….more