Drinking While Pregnant and Later Child Growth

Study

Drinking while pregnant and its effects on the size of infants at birth has been studied in earlier research. This study examined the link between drinking while pregnant and children’s height and weight from birth to age 10.

drinking while pregnantData came from 7,597 mother-child pairs. Occasional or light daily drinking while pregnant was not linked to reduced birth weight. Nor to birth length or growth up to the age of 10.

The infants of mothers who were heavily drinking while pregnant were born slightly shorter and lighter. That’s compared to infants of women who had abstained. But by age 10 the children of the heavily drinking mothers were similar in height and weight.

The subject of drinking while pregnant is one about which reasonable people disagree. Often very strongly. As in religion and politics, they can believe that their way is the only way. But this is a very personal decision. It need not be justified to others.

Resources: Drinking While Pregnant

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Readings on drinking while pregnant

Popular Books
Scholarly
    • Bakker, R., et al. Light and moderate maternal alcohol consumption with fetal growth. Int. J. Epi., 2010, 39(3), 777-789.
    • Lundsberg, L., et al. Low-to-Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Consumption and the Risk of Selected Birth Outcomes. Ann. Epi., 2019, 2014 25, 46-54.
    • Shiono, P., et al. Smoking and drinking during pregnancy. JAMA., 1996, 255(1), 82-84.