Study on Alcohol and Pregnancy

Pregnant women have been warned that even half a glass of wine can cause a foetus to stop breathing and moving for as long as two hours

Professor Peter Hepper of Queen's University in Belfast examined the effects of low-level alcohol exposure during pregnancy by using 18-week scans on women who drank an average of a glass of wine a week.

He found that during the scans, the foetuses stopped breathing and moving, sometimes for up to two hours.

They could suddenly jump and turn themselves over. These jolts suggested that their brains were not developing properly.

His advice is that the "only safe level of alcohol is zero" for pregnant women. This ties in with the advice of the Department of Health.

He said the foetus should be continually active.

It is already accepted that drinking heavily throughout pregnancy can cause a baby to develop a serious condition called foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).

Children with FAS have restricted growth, facial abnormalities and learning and behavioural disorders.

Drinking alcohol is potentially most harmful for a foetus in the first three months of pregnancy, when it is linked to miscarriage and to birth abnormalities.

Irish women with higher levels of income and education are more likely to drink alcohol weekly during their pregnancy, a Growing Up in Ireland study found.  "Some groups of women drink lower levels continuously while other women binge drink at weekends and don't drink during the week," he said.

"Binge drinking is potentially more harmful because there is  more exposure to alcohol but I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that if you drink lower amounts of alcohol more regularly, it's any less harmful or somehow more safe."

View more information here Foetal Behaviour Research Centre