Light drinking during in pregnancy 'not harmful'

Researchers at UCL tested the abilities of 10,534 UK seven-year-olds born in 2000-2002 from mothers who drank varying amounts of alcohol during their pregnancy. They collated data from the Millennium Cohort Study to assess whether light drinking (up to two units a week) in pregnancy was linked to unfavourable developmental outcomes.

The sample group was made up of mothers who never drank (12.7 per cent), mothers who drink alcohol but did not drink during pregnancy (57.1 per cent), light drinkers during pregnancy (23.1 per cent) and mothers who drank more during pregnancy (7.2 per cent). They focused on the results from mothers who abstained from alcohol completely or were light drinkers during pregnancy.

UCL collected results from home visit interviews and questionnaires completed by parents and teachers to identify social and emotional behaviour such as hyperactivity, attention or conduct problems. Children were also tested on their cognitive performance in maths, reading and spatial skills.

While children born to light drinkers appeared to outperform those born to non-drinkers, in both cognitive and behavioural developments, after statistical judgement these differences largely disappeared.

Professor Yvonne Kelly, co-director, ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies (ICLS) at University College London, and co-author of the study said, ‘There appears to be no increased risk of negative impacts of light drinking in pregnancy on behavioural or cognitive development in seven-year-old children.

‘We need to understand more about how children’s environments influence their behavioural and intellectual development. While we have followed these children for the first seven years of their lives, further research is needed to detect whether any adverse effects of low levels of alcohol consumption in pregnancy emerge later in childhood.’

John Thorp, BJOG deputy editor in chief, added, ‘These findings, that drinking not more than one or two units of alcohol per week during pregnancy is not linked to developmental problems in early-mid childhood, are consistent with current UK Department of Health guidelines.’

‘However, it remains unclear as to what level of alcohol consumption may have adverse outcomes so this should not alter current advice and if women are worried about consumption levels the safest option would be to abstain from drinking during pregnancy.’

Previous research has linked heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy to health and developmental problems in children. It is still unclear when levels of drinking begin to have detrimental effects on a child’s cognitive and behavioural development.

• The report was published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and can be found here.