Pregnant women should not touch a drop of alcohol, as there is no evidence of a “safe” threshold, say doctors.
Writing in the BMJ, experts in paediatrics and pregnancy 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 wine, the authors said women were facing a “contradictory, confusing barrage of mixed messages” about how to approach pregnancy.
In the UK, the Department of Health recommends that women should avoid alcohol altogether. But, it says, if they do opt to have a drink, they should have no more than one or two units of alcohol (equivalent to one or two small glasses of wine) once or twice a week.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) advises women to avoid alcohol in the first three months in particular, because of the increased risk of miscarriage.
Meanwhile, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) says drinking too much can harm an unborn baby and women should not drink in the first three months.
But it says that after then drinking one or two units, no more than once or twice a week does not appear to be harmful.
A BMJ article, doctors said how and when foetal damage occurs is unknown and will vary according to each individual pregnancy. They add: “Pregnant women must know there is no evidence of a threshold level of alcohol consumption in pregnancy below which there can be certainty that exposure is safe.”