Moderate Drinking During Pregnancy doesn't Always Affect Children's Brain Development

Drinking about 2 to 7 glasses of alcohol per week during pregnancy doesn't lead to any negative outcomes for the baby, according to a new study. The adverse effects of alcohol exposure in the womb are especially low in children belonging to higher socioeconomic classes.

A previous study had found that heavy alcohol use during pregnancy shrinks the child's brain. Another study had found that even moderate drinking during pregnancy lowers the baby's IQ. However, the latest research claims that moderate alcohol consumption hardly has any effects on the foetal development.

According to recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey, one in 13 pregnant women in the U.S. admit to drinking alcohol, with many going on binge drinking.

The present study analyzed data of 7000 ten year olds enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Children, whose mothers were known to be drinking during pregnancy, underwent a 20 minute balance assessment test. The test is an indicator of brain development in children.

In the study, about 70 percent of all moms hadn't drunk alcohol during pregnancy. The rest had moderate or low levels of alcohol.

Study results showed that children of middle-class women who were drinking during pregnancy were slightly better at the balance assessment test than children of mothers who had abstained from alcohol.

Researchers said that socioeconomic class may have a larger role to play in this study as they found that mothers who indulged in moderate drinking were often from affluent classes. Working-class mothers were more likely to abstain from alcohol completely during pregnancy.

"Most of the women in this study either didn't drink at all or if they did drink, they didn't drink very much. There weren't many heavy drinkers. We know that heavy drinking during pregnancy has bad effects on a developing foetus," Professor John Macleod, from the University of Bristol's School of Social and Community Medicine, lead author of the study told The Guardian.

Socioeconomic factors may have protected children from adverse effects of alcohol exposure in the womb. "They may have better balance, they might do better at school. Having middle-class parents has advantages to a child that are nothing to do with alcohol," Macleod added, reports Guardian.