Moderate drinking in pregnancy may not harm baby: study

Moms-to-be, please note! Drinking a small glass of wine every day in pregnancy may not harm the baby's brain development, a new study has claimed.
A large study of almost 7,000 ten year olds analysed their ability to balance - a key indicator of prenatal neurodevelopment.
The study, by scientists at Bristol University, found that moderate drinking during pregnancy, of between three to seven units in a week, had no discernible harm on children's neurological or cognitive function, as measured by ability to balance.
The findings add to growing evidence that moderate alcohol consumption while pregnant may in fact be safe, but are likely to prove controversial, 'The Independent' reported.

Drinking while pregnant has been linked to a number of problems including heart defects and learning and behaviour problems later in life.
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) recommends that women should not drink at all during pregnancy and if they do choose to, to limit consumption to just one or two units, once or twice a week.

The new paper, published in online medical journal BMJ Open, looked at data on children born in the early 1990s who took part in a long-term health study in the south of England.
They were tested on their ability to balance on a beam. Results were compared to information that their mothers had given about their drinking during pregnancy.

The children of mothers who reported low (between one and two glasses per week) and moderate (between three and seven glasses) alcohol consumption performed just as well as children whose mothers drank nothing at all.
Test subjects were drawn from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which has tracked the long-term health of 14,000 children born between 1991 and 1992.
Dr James Nicholls, Research Manager at Alcohol Research UK, which provided funding towards the study, said that the paper made "an important contribution" to a "limited" evidence-base.
"Although [balance] is only one measure of neurodevelopment, it should not be disregarded," he said.