Researchers at the University of New Mexico found that the growth of alcoho-exposed babies remained within the normal range, but the mother's heavy alcohol use effected the developing brain of their baby.
"What this tells us is that the earlier you abstain in a pregnancy, the better the outcome," said lead author Nancy Handmaker, a University of New Mexico clinical psychologist with expertise in maternal-fetal health.
Handmaker's researchers obtained routine ultrasound data from 167 pregnant women who had reported a history of hazardous drinking before pregnancy. Of these, 97 were classified as heavy drinkers, according to their news release. The study compared the fetal growth measures among drinkers who quit after learning of their impending motherhood to those among women who continued to drink.
Mental, Motor and Sensory Tasks
The ultrasounds revealed that fetuses of the continuing drinkers within the heavy-drinking group had a smaller ratio of head-to-abdominal circumference, indicating reduced skull growth. They also had smaller measures of the cerebellum, a region of the brain involved in mental, motor and sensory tasks, Handmaker said."Fetal growth measures were essentially the same among nondrinkers and those who quit when they learned of their pregnancy. There may have been measures that were not part of routine ultrasound examinations that would have been more sensitive to the pre-recognition drinking," said Handmaker.
Strategy for Heavy Drinking Mothers
"The provision of feedback on fetal development as revealed in ultrasonography may be a strategy to encourage heavy drinkers to seek treatment during pregnancy," Handmake said."The best opportunity to identify and intervene with women at high-risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy is prior to pregnancy," said Louise Floyd of the Fetal Alcohol Prevention Team of the Centers for Disease Control in a Health Behavior News Service release. "What we are hoping to see is a major shift in looking at a healthy pregnancy as something that we start to support in the preconception period."
Source: The study "Impact of alcohol exposure after pregnancy recognition on ultrasonographic fetal growth measures," was published in the May 2006 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
