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Moderate Alcohol During
Pregnancy Seen OK
At least in terms of preterm delivery,
it seems harmless for pregnant women to have a drink or two a
day, new research from indicates. However, women who have three
or more alcoholic drinks per day while pregnant are more likely
to deliver prematurely.
Dr. F. Parazzini of the Istituto
di Ricerche Farmacologiche 'Mario Negri' in Milan, and colleagues
asked nearly 2500 women who had just given birth about their drinking
habits before and during pregnancy. Five hundred and two women
had given birth prematurely at less than 37 weeks.
Reporting in the European Journal
of Clinical Nutrition, Parazzini's team found that three or more
daily drinks during the first trimester increased the risk of
premature birth two-fold, while the same drinking pattern in the
second and third trimesters upped the risk of prematurity by 80
and 90 percent, respectively.
"No increased risk of preterm birth
was observed in women drinking one or two drinks per day in pregnancy,"
the researchers write.
The investigators caution, however,
that they relied on the women to say how much they drank, and
did not ask until after they delivered their babies. Consequently,
some women might have underestimated how much they drank, or forgotten
exactly what they drank months before.
That said, the researchers note
that in Italy drinking alcohol is "socially acceptable," and doctors
do not routinely recommend that women avoid alcohol during pregnancy.
The biological explanation for
why drinking alcohol may affect the growth of the fetus "is not
completely understood," the authors write.
Some experts have proposed that
alcohol influences fetal development by restricting oxygen flow
to the fetus, reducing cell growth or influencing placental development.
Others have suggested that people
who drink tend also to smoke, and this may be the damaging factor.
However, at least in the current study, "the effect of alcohol
was not affected by smoking," Parazzini and colleagues report.
SOURCE: European Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, October 2003.
Reference
Source 89
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