Researchers have said that children can develop neurological disorders if their mothers consume alcohol during pregnancy.
Tatiana Balachova, an associate paediatrics professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, United States and her fellow researchers urged doctors to better understand their patient’s history of alcohol consumption.
She said “We all sometimes feel that alcohol is something which most people drink, and alcohol is not illegal, and it’s part of culture and is acceptable. Sometimes physicians will not ask about alcohol. They may ask about drugs. For fetal development and women who may become pregnant, this is something very serious to think about.
“We cannot say how much alcohol it would take to (cause) specific damage in a specific child because there are so many different variations in the world. It’s genetics. It’s maternal age. There are so many factors involved, but the main point is — there is no safe amount we can say, and there is no safe time.”
She recommended that doctors should appropriately educate pregnancy women about the dangers of consuming alcohol in pregnancy.