Birth Defects – Do you think Abstaining Pregnant Women from Alcohol can Save the Baby?
Various birth defects affect 1 in every 33 babies born in the United States every year. These defects are the number one cause of infant death; figures indicate that they are responsible for a full 20% of the annual US infant mortality rate.
A birth defect can be categorized as a condition that the infant develops while still in utero. Most birth defects develop during the first trimester of a pregnancy, although a few may develop later.
A birth defect can affect the way the baby looks and/or the way its body functions. Some, such as a harelip or a club foot are easily visible well others such as a lack of sight or hearing may be harder to spot initially and are often not apparent until the child is a few weeks or even months old.
In the 21st century some of the most commonly diagnosed birth defects affect the heart. Some are mild enough to be treatable with medication and observation while others require immediate surgery to save the babies’ life. The breakthroughs in infant cardiac surgery in the last twenty years ago have been astonishing, and skilled surgeons across the world are now able to save babies who years ago would have died very quickly.
Physical birth defects like these are hard to predict and in all likelihood the mother could have done nothing differently that would have prevented them from occurring. Some birth defects are related to the infants genetics but that too can be hard to uncover during pregnancy.
There are some birth defects though that are eminently preventable. A woman who smokes during pregnancy, even occasionally, has a greater chance of giving birth prematurely or to an infant with a low birth weight.
Alcohol consumption by pregnant women has also been linked with a number of birth defects that are collectively known within the medical community as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. A baby born with FASD may have any one, or a combination of problems including problems with the heart, kidneys, or bones, hyperactivity, learning and speech difficulties and shorter-than-average height to name just a few.
There are those who believe that a small amount of alcohol can be safely consumed by pregnant women in their second and third trimesters but current medical thinking still predominantly advocates total abstinence for the entire course of the pregnancy.
For women who are over 35 there is also an increased risk that their baby may be born with a birth defect. Spina Bifida for instance, a condition that affects the spine and in many cases eventually causes death is found most commonly in infants whose mothers were older when they gave birth to them, although researchers have yet to conclusively decide why that should be the case.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
My family is living proof that this article is wrong. We are the proud parents of two healthy, happy children, and my wife drank a glass of wine a week with dinner, after the first trimester. Her OBGYN said that women are told not to drink, because many can not have “just one,” and it is not safe to get drunk. However, he said that one glass a week can help with lowering blood pressure and is perfectly safe for the mother and child.