Exploring Alcohol and Pregnancy: Cognitive

The problem with drinking alcohol during pregnancy is that no amount is proven to be safe.

Researchers don’t know enough about the potential effects of drinking alcohol at particular times during the pregnancy to be able to say that any time is really safe.
It’s also difficult to predict the impact of drinking on any given pregnancy because some women have higher levels of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Pregnant women who drink alcohol risk giving birth to a child with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). These conditions range from mild to severe and include speech and language delays, learning disabilities, abnormal facial features, small head size, and many other problems.












Drinking Alcohol during pregnancy


“The way I see it is: If you wouldn’t give a 2-month-old a glass of wine, then why would you drink a glass of wine when you’re pregnant?” Garry says.

Carol Archie, MD, associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is concerned that even small amounts of alcohol can affect a developing baby’s brain.

“We know that alcohol impacts brain cells and that the baby’s brain is constantly developing throughout the entire pregnancy,” she says. “So I would say to a pregnant mother that it’s probably best to abstain from all alcohol.”