However, new study suggests that this may soon alter.
For more than 50 years, scientists have warned against drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Recent research has discovered that a mother’s consumption of as little as one drink per week may affect a child’s brain development, cognitive function and behavior, and facial shape, despite decades of public health campaigns claiming that there is no safe amount of alcohol for mothers to consume while pregnant.
The scientific consensus appears to be rather clear: prenatal alcohol consumption can cause a range of difficulties (though some doubts exist about the relative risk of mild versus heavy drinking, for example). Potential consequences include neurodevelopmental deficits and specific facial traits most typically associated with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), as well as behavioral, cognitive, and learning issues like speech delays. FASD is now the accepted term for “foetal alcohol syndrome,” or FAS, because of the vast range of its effects.
