The risks to drinking alcohol while pregnant are always implied by medical professionals to their patients. In fact, the US National Library of Medicine has guidelines that indicate the dangers of alcohol to the mom and the baby.
But despite the warnings, a new study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found out that at least 10 percent, or one in ten pregnant women, consume alcohol even with a baby in the womb. Worse, at least a third of women in the family may have admitted to "binge drinking" while pregnant, according to Reuters.
Researchers studied the data of pregnant women between the ages of 18 to 44 from a survey taken in 2011 to 2013. According to NBC News, the study revealed that it's mostly older mothers and college girls who admitted to the drinking, with about 19 percent of women from the ages of 35 to 44 said that they had one alcohol while pregnant. Meanwhile, the women who binge-drink admitted to doing the habit at least 4.6 times in a month.
"One possible explanation for this might be that women who binge drink during pregnancy are more likely to be alcohol-dependent than the average female binge drinker, and therefore binge drink more frequently," the researchers wrote in their findings.
Learning of the findings, a doctor from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Maura Quinlan, said, "It's very discouraging. It's higher than I think any of us would have expected," according to Health Day.
Meanwhile, a previous study from Denmark stated that light drinking during pregnancy was found to cause no harm for the baby, according to Med Page Today. But doctors of this latest research disagree. "Again, there's no safe amount and no safe type of alcohol to drink during pregnancy," said Dr. Cheryl Tan, the lead author, via Health Day. "It's just not worth it," she added.
The experts also warn that this may be indicative of alcoholism, which is why some women cannot stop the habit of drinking despite being pregnant.
"We know that alcohol use during pregnancy can cause birth defects and developmental disabilities in babies, as well as an increased risk of other pregnancy problems, such as miscarriage, stillbirth and prematurity," said Coleen Boyle of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities via Yahoo.
"We need to ask every patient every time, every visit, and just keep bringing that message home that no alcohol use is acceptable," said Quinlan.
