Can women drink alcohol during pregnancy? Is it safe to drink alcohol in small amounts? Can drinking alcohol without knowing you are pregnant be harmful to the fetus? Let’s discuss these questions with you today. Pregnant women in Europe and the United States are so crazy about drinking alcohol during pregnancy On July 6, 2015, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an article stating that in the UK, Ireland, and Australia, about 20 to 80 percent of pregnant women still drink alcohol during pregnancy. I believe that when they see this data, most Chinese women will think that the crooked people are so crazy, the UK is really the first corrupt country. But there is no relevant literature to report that the miscarriage rate, preterm birth rate, and abortion rate of these three countries are significantly higher than other countries, and it seems that their eugenic quality has not decreased. In fact, the issue of alcohol consumption during pregnancy has always been a controversial one. While the official pregnancy guidelines of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand recommend an absolute ban on alcohol during pregnancy, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) pregnancy guidelines clearly state that alcohol should be consumed twice a week from April to September during pregnancy. It is perfectly fine to drink no more than 2 drinks per week from April to September. Probably because of the great influence of the UK in the medical field, many Irish and Australian pregnant women also choose to follow the UK recommendations. The CDC in the US has also reported that 12.5% of women in the US still drink alcohol during pregnancy. However, the CDC, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend that pregnant women should never drink alcohol during pregnancy, and believe that heavy drinking during pregnancy will definitely affect fetal growth and development, while it is uncertain whether light, moderate drinking will affect fetal growth and development. This view is also recognized by international colleagues. Heavy drinking can damage the fetus. Heavy drinking during pregnancy can cause alcohol to flow into the fetus via the placenta, damaging the fetus’ brain development, causing learning dysfunction and delayed language formation after birth, as well as facial deformities and small head size, and in the most serious cases, leading to premature birth, miscarriage, and even stillbirth. This is the reason why the majority of countries in the world recommend never drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Light, moderate drinking: British pregnant women try it on themselves A survey of British pregnant women was published in the October 2010 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. British academics measured the behavioral and cognitive abilities of 12,576 5-year-old children who shared the characteristic that their mothers drank one to two drinks per week while pregnant or occasionally drank alcohol during pregnancy. These children were found to have no behavioral or cognitive differences compared to other children of the same age. This study at least suggests that light, moderate alcohol consumption is not detrimental to the behavior and cognitive abilities of the offspring until age 5. The researchers now plan to conduct further follow-up studies. Perhaps it is based on these studies that the UK has written in its own pregnancy guidelines that it is perfectly fine to drink no more than 2 drinks per week, twice a week, from April to September during pregnancy. There is no way to determine light, moderate drinking So the question is, what exactly is light, moderate drinking? Since the alcohol content of various types of alcohol varies, and the ability of each person’s liver to metabolize alcohol varies, scientists say it is impossible to determine how much is light and moderate drinking. However, for those women who are early in their pregnancy and do not know they are pregnant and drink alcohol, there is no need to worry too much that their mistaken drinking will cause damage to the fetus, unless they drink too much. For the majority of Chinese women, the majority of them will stop drinking during pregnancy to nurture their babies. But if some women don’t know they are pregnant and drinking, don’t worry, your baby is likely to be very healthy, after all, we are still far from the British standard, not to mention that vodka-drinking fighting people!