SUMMARY Nine hundred and seventy-three white women attending an antenatal clinic completed a questionnaire on parity, social class, smoking habits, and consumption of alcohol and coffee. Forty-nine per cent said they were non-drinkers and none of their babies had a major congenital abnormality; whereas 1-2% of the babies of the women who did consume alcohol had major abnormalities. The babies of women who said they drank more than an average of 20 ml alcohol a day had significantly smaller head circumferences than the babies of non-drinkers in some gestational age groups. Maternal serum y-glutamyltransferase levels predicted abnormal fetal outcome in the 3 women in whom they were raised. There is no safe level of alcohol consumption in pregnancy and even moderate 'social' drinking is associated with abnormal fetal outcome.There is a substantial risk of the fetal alcohol syndrome in the offspring of women drinking the equivalent of 90 ml absolute alcohol daily (5-6 hard drinks).1 Pregnant women consuming half that amount have an increased risk of having an infant born preterm, or one below expected birthweight, length, and head circumference, or with major and minor congenital abnormalities.2 It has not been established if moderate 'social' drinking has any adverse effect on the fetus. We report the results of a survey of nearly 1000 pregnancies.
MethodsDuring 1980, all white women attending the booking clinic at the Warneford Hospital, Leamington Spa, were invited to complete a self-administered questionnaire, marked only with the patient's hospital number. The study was closed when 1000 completed questionnaires had been received, 1120 women having been invited to participate. Data were collected on social class, smoking, and consumption during pregnancy of various beverages including coffee and alcoholic drinks. The women were also asked about 'binge' drinking of alcohol in pregnancy (excessive alcohol consumed on isolated occasions, as opposed to regular consumption of alcohol). Alcohol consumption was expressed as ml of absolute alcohol equivalent daily, averaged over one week's consumption. Serum Table. Twenty-seven women were lost to follow-up because they had moved from the area while pregnant. Of the 973 women, 479 (49%) said they had been non-drinkers during pregnancy, 359 (37 %) said they had drunk between 1 and 10 ml alcohol on average daily, 107 (11 %) between 10 and 20 ml daily, and 28 (3 %) women had drunk over 20 ml daily. The highest reported consumption was 80 ml daily and the baby was normal. There was no association between alcohol consumption and the number of abortions (22), stillbirths (7), multiple pregnancies (10), nor between gender, gestational 940
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