Rise in US pregnant women drinking alcohol: 1 in 9 occasionally drink and 4% binge-drink

The rate of women are drinking alcohol while pregnant has gone up in the United States, new data show.

One in nine pregnant women drink, and four percent binge-drink, according to a report on 2017 stats, the latest available, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It is a slight increase from 2013, when one in 10 women said they drank alcohol while pregnant, and three percent admitted to binge-drinking. 

‘Drinking alcohol while pregnant can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders,’ the report warns. ‘There is no known safe level of alcohol use during pregnancy.’ 

One in nine pregnant women drink, and four percent binge-drink. It is a slight increase from 2013, when one in 10 women had alcohol while pregnant and three percent admitted to binge-drinking

Alcohol during pregnancy is more of a complicated topic than it may seem at first blush. 

We know all types of alcohol can be linked to fetal alcohol syndrome, which can include developmental delays, heart conditions, facial deformities, and bone or joint problems.

A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2017 found that two drinks a week increases the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome by 10 percent. 

However, the hard-and-fast rule against drinking in pregnancy has been complicated by research suggesting it’s not all that bad.

Harvard researchers in 2013 found that rates of complications were relatively unchanged across all levels of alcohol consumption. 

Indeed, researchers have struggled to work out a ‘cut-off’ point, though it does seem that women who accidentally have a drink before they know they’re pregnant early in gestation have a very low risk of complications.

And prior to 1971, when fetal alcohol syndrome was first identified, doctors used to administer alcohol to women through an IV drip when they were heading into a premature labor, in a bid to slow it down. 

Angela Garbes, author of Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy, questions the ‘extreme’ CDC guidelines. 

‘I think instead of just telling women, ‘You can’t do this,’ I think you can ask them, ‘What level of risk are you comfortable with?’ Assuming, again, that people want to take care of themselves and their babies,’ Garbes said in an interview with GMA last year.

‘There’s a real pressure because the minute you become pregnant, you basically have to kind of stop being the person that you were for decades before.’

Dr Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN and New York Times columnist, agrees with the premise that women have the right to choose what they do with their bodies, and all the strict rules pregnant women have to adhere to can feel a bit much.

But in a recent column, Dr Gunter said her work in medicine has led her to concede the ‘inconvenient truth’ that no level of alcohol is OK. 

‘The truth is that … (FAS) is far more common than people think, and we have no ability to say accurately what level of alcohol consumption is risk free,’ Gunter said.

‘The best analogy for the risk … is driving with your newborn unbuckled in the back seat. 

‘Maybe you’ll get into a car accident and maybe you won’t … if you do, maybe it will be a fender bender or maybe it will be catastrophic.’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk