Review nº 19

Name: Cristina Soledad Guzmán
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Date of publication: Friday October 31 2008


Review nº 19: Article ‘Light drinking in pregnancy may be good for baby boys, says study’

As a pregnant woman you are strongly adviced not to smoke or drink alcohol to help your baby grow up healthy. But researchers found that light drinking during pregnancy has no ill effects and may benefit baby boys. This topic is developed in the article ‘Light drinking in pregnancy may be good for baby boys, says study’, from a publication in The Guardian newspaper.
Boys born to mothers who drank lightly during pregnancy are better behaved and score more highly in tests at the age of 3 than the sons of women who abstained. Light drinking is defined as one to two units a week, or on occasion. The study also found that girls born to light drinkers were 30% less likely to have emotional and peer problems. But doctors were not completely certain that children’s better performance was not linked to their family background. Although it has always been clear that heavy drinking can seriously damage babies, scientists have not had good evidence either to prove or disprove that light drinking does any harm. The British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence states that it is best not to drink at all for the first three months on the grounds of a risk of miscarriage, but thereafter occasional drink will not harm the foetus. Moreover, the list of food, drinks and activities to avoid is really long.
In my opinion, a study base on 3-year-old children cannot be absolutely certain even more if the origin of their behaviour is not clearly identified. I agree with the idea that light drinking after the first three months of pregnancy won’t harm the foetus. But I do not think that only alcohol could determine children’s behaviour or could have different effects according to their gender.
This article gives strong healthy recomendations of when and how much alcohol a pregnant woman can drink in order to avoid harming her baby. It also describes some possible benefits of alcohol on children, based on a researche in 3-year-old children. But though light drinking of alcohol may not be dangerous, there are many other factors which will affect the development of the baby while the mother is pregnant.