The Risks of Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy Have Been Exaggerated

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“There is no conclusive evidence to demonstrate that moderate drinking during pregnancy can harm the fetus.”

The harms of alcohol to the unborn baby have been exaggerated, argues Daniel Rogov in the following viewpoint. While heavy consumption can cause birth defects, there is no evidence that moderate drinking is risky, says Rogov. He points out that some studies even show that it may actually be beneficial during pregnancy. In his opinion, pregnant women should not be criticized if they decide to consume a moderate amount of alcohol. Rogov is the Wine and Food Critic of HaAretz newspaper in Israel and maintains a wine and gastronomy Internet site.

As you read, consider the following questions:

According to Whitten and Lipp, as cited by Rogov, what is the occurrence of fetal alcohol syndrome?

In Rogov’s opinion, what do studies since the mid-1980s show about the correlation between moderate alcohol consumption and birth defects?

How might moderate drinking be beneficial to pregnancy, as explained by Rogov?

Since 1990 every bottle of wine, beer and spirits sold in the United States has carried the warning that “according to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects.” If that has not been enough to add to the anxiety of women already concerned about their own health and the health of their fetuses, hundreds of newspaper articles and television talk shows have been devoted to convincing women that if they have even a single drink during their pregnancy that there is a chance that their baby will be born deformed, addicted to alcohol or retarded.

An Exaggerated Risk

It seems, however, as if the American government, medical authorities and media have not been telling American women the entire truth. Although the official message is “don’t drink at all during pregnancy”, a great deal of recent research and a re-examination of the alcohol-pregnancy issue show that there is no conclusive evidence to demonstrate that moderate drinking during pregnancy can harm the fetus.

According to doctors David Whitten and Martin Lipp of the University of California at San Francisco, “the campaign against drinking during pregnancy started in 1973 when several studies showed that heavy drinking during pregnancy can cause the condition known as the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.” These studies demonstrated that the children of many alcoholic mothers were born with a cluster of severe birth defects. “What the government conveniently chose to ignore,” say Whitten and Lipp, “is that this syndrome is extremely rare, occurring only 3 times in 100,000 births, and then only when the mother drinks abusively throughout her pregnancy.”

Lipp and Whitten, whose “To Your Health” was published in 1995, are among an increasing number of doctors and researchers who feel that pregnant women have no reason to fear drinking a glass of wine every day. As revealed by contributing editor Thomas Matthews in the August 31, 1994 issue of the “Wine Spectator” magazine which was devoted largely to this controversy, “there is even new research that shows that moderate drinking during pregnancy may actually help the development of the child after birth.”

An Unjustified Argument

No one questions the fact that the consumption of large amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can harm the fetus. It has been well established, for example, that the children of women who drink more than 3-4 glasses of wine daily show significant decreases in birth weight and length than those of women who drink 1-2 glasses daily, and it is generally accepted that having five or more drinks per day is especially dangerous to the fetus. Here, however, agreement ends, and Genevieve Knupfer of the Alcohol Research Group in Berkeley, California says that part of the problem comes about because many of the studies that reported adverse effects on the fetus used imprecise methodology. In several studies, for example, researchers arbitrarily defined “heavy drinkers” as those women who consumed more than one glass of wine daily.

Feeling even more strongly, Dr. Michael Samuels of New York City’s Doctor’s Hospital says that the data has been “turned around for the purpose of frightening women,” and indicates that birth defects of any kind occur in 3-5% of babies born in the United States and only 1-2% of those can be related to the ingestion of alcohol. Based on the data of Samuels and other medical researchers, it becomes clear that less than 0.1% of all birth defects are related to alcohol, and that more than 90% of the affected children are born to women with a history of alcohol abuse.

More than this, not even one study carried out since the mid-1980s has shown a direct correlation between moderate alcohol consumption and birth defects. One study, of 33,300 California women showed that even though 47% drank moderately during their pregnancies that none of their babies met the criteria for Fetal Alcoholic Syndrome. The authors of this study concluded “that alcohol at moderate levels is not a significant cause of malformation in our society and that the position that moderate consumption is dangerous, is completely unjustified.”

Moderate Drinking May Be Beneficial

Some studies go as far as to indicate that light to moderate drinking may actually improve the chance of successful pregnancies. A 1993 study published in the “American Journal of Epidemiology” by Ruth Little and Clarence Weinberg concluded, for example, that there were fewer stillbirths and fewer losses of fetus due to early labor among women who consumed a moderate level of alcohol. That some alcohol can be protective against preterm birth is also supported by Dr. Martha Direnfeld of Haifa University who points out that when used properly, alcohol is known to stop unwanted uterine contractions, and thus has “saved many pregnancies that might otherwise have spontaneously aborted.” More than this, Dr. Robert Sokol of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse in Detroit has shown that it is light drinkers and not abstainers who have the best chance of having a baby of optimal birth weight, and in their book Alcohol and the Fetus and doctors Henry Rosset and Lynn Wiener have presented data that show that children of moderate drinkers tend to score highest on developmental tests at the age of 18 months.

Lecturing Pregnant Women

Despite these and many other findings the United States government, the American Medical Association, the British Medical Association and the vast majority of American and English doctors continue to recommend complete abstention from wine, beer and spirits during pregnancy. An examination of why this is true reveals that the issue is as emotional, ideological and political as it is medical. Well-respected wine writer Janis Robinson has declared that “in this our male dominated society, men feel entitled to lecture pregnant women on how they should best discharge their responsibilities to their unborn children.” In a similar tone, Katha Pollit, writing in “The Nation” claimed that “all of these warnings allow the government to appear to be concerned about babies without having to spend any money, change any priorities or challenge any vested interests.”

No one argues that there are no risks whatever in alcohol consumption during pregnancy, even at sensible levels, but as Thomas Matthews stated in the “Wine Spectator,” “it is important to ask: risky when compared to what?” In her recently published book The Myths of Motherhood, Shary Turner indicates that alcohol is far from the only risk factor pregnant women are warned against. Other items on the list include caffeine, chocolate, raw oysters, unpasteurized cheese, tropical fruits, drugs that alleviate cold symptoms, nail polish, suntan lotion and hair dye, all of which in some amount may harm the fetus. Turner’s conclusion is that “the only risk free pregnancy is one that is meant less to benefit the baby than to imprison the mother in anxiety and self-reproach.”

Women Should Choose for Themselves

In the absence of 100% certainty about the issue, many continue to insist that abstinence is the best advice to give pregnant women. Others, however, see this attitude as illogical and have concluded that the risks and benefits associated with light to moderate regular wine consumption compare quite favorably with most other activities of daily life. Doctors Whitten and Lipp write that “light, regular wine consumption, or one or two glasses of table wine per day can be part of the healthy lifestyle for most people, including pregnant women.” Israeli gynecologist-researchers Howard Carp and Martha Direnfeld also feel that women who were drinking healthfully before pregnancy are not putting their fetuses in danger if they go on drinking in the same way during pregnancy. Dr. Carp states that “an occasional glass of wine or any other drink is fine, no problem at all, and those women who drink a glass of wine once or twice a week with their meals should not feel any guilt or fear at all.” Like Dr. Carp, Dr. Direnfeld acknowledges the harm of drinking in excess but feels that “a reasonable amount of alcohol, say a glass of wine per day, will not harm the baby.”

It is true that all of the evidence has not yet been gathered, but it is difficult not to see the logic of the conclusion that when it comes to drinking, evidence demands interpretations and decisions require judgment. Women are capable of choosing for themselves.

The Risks of Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy Have Been Exaggerated

The Risks of Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy Have Been Exaggerated

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