Prenatal exposure to alcohol: effect on infant growth and morphologic characteristics

Research studies have described certain specific effects of maternal alcohol consumption on the unborn child. These effects are known as the fetal alcohol syndrome, which may include mental deficiency, insufficient growth, and physical abnormalities of the head, face, and limbs. Not all studies of women who drank during pregnancy have yielded the same results. Alcohol consumption has been implicated as a cause of premature birth and low birth weight in some studies, but not in others. The lack of agreement among research reports may be related to differences in the timing and the number of maternal interviews performed during pregnancy. A longitudinal study of alcohol use in pregnancy was conducted; 650 women were interviewed once during each trimester of pregnancy. The findings linked maternal drinking to abnormal fetal development. The consumption of alcohol in the first two months of pregnancy was associated with low birth weight, smaller head circumference, shorter length, and fetal alcohol effects. Thus, the early part of the first trimester was the time at which alcohol had the greatest impact on the developing baby. This study is one of the few that has compared maternal alcohol consumption in early pregnancy with subsequent fetal abnormalities. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)