BMJ  2007;335:857 (27 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39356.489340.AD

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Is it all right for women to drink small amounts of alcohol in pregnancy? No

British Medical Association, London WC1H

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence draft guidance on drinking during pregnancy has added to confusion about safety. Pat O'Brien believes that telling women to abstain is overly paternalistic on current evidence, but Vivienne Nathanson and colleagues argue that this is the safest message

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The latest government advice in England says that pregnant women and women trying to conceive should avoid alcohol. A new BMA report, Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, agrees, recommending that abstinence is the only safe policy for women who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy.¹ This view is shared by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists² and the World Health Organization.³ In the United States, the surgeon general recommends that women who are pregnant or who may become pregnant should abstain from consuming alcohol.⁴

Alcohol can adversely affect the reproductive process in several ways, including infertility, miscarriage, preterm deliveries, stillbirth, and low birthweight babies.^{5 6 7} Alcohol is teratogenic and readily crosses the placenta. Because the fetus does not have a developed blood filtration system, it is unprotected from alcohol in the bloodstream. The damage caused by alcohol depends on the level of maternal alcohol consumption, the pattern of alcohol exposure, and . . . [Full text of this article]

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