This archive report was first published on 29 June 2019.
Drinking alcohol while pregnant is known to have devastating effects on the developing baby, but what if a mother drinks before she knows she is pregnant? Health guidelines in the UK, US, and Australia advise against drinking alcohol throughout pregnancy, but this advice is often dismissed due to a lack of scientific evidence.
According to a 2016 study, up to 30% of Australian women drank alcohol in the early stages of pregnancy, with 18% consuming binge quantities before discovering they were pregnant.
Given that about half of pregnancies worldwide are unplanned, many babies could be exposed to alcohol early in pregnancy, with potentially severe consequences. To investigate this, researchers conducted a study in rats, published in Development in 2019, to determine the effects of alcohol on the developing embryo.
The study found that giving female rats alcohol in the very early stages of pregnancy can cause the foetuses to grow poorly, with the placenta being poorly formed and the foetuses being much smaller than those that did not receive any alcohol. This effect was more severe in female foetuses than male foetuses.
The researchers also discovered that the effects of alcohol on the embryo were due to a decrease in the amount of choline, an essential nutrient found in foods such as beef, liver, soybeans, eggs, broccoli, and spinach. A higher dietary intake of choline around the time of conception has been associated with a lower risk of neural tube defects in the baby.
Neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, are abnormalities that occur in the development of the spinal cord and brain. The next step for the researchers is to give rats supplemental choline to see if it prevents the negative effects of alcohol during pregnancy.
Published on June 29, 2019 in The Conversation.
