UK Wedding News
07/07/2015
One in three women in Britain have admitted to binge drinking during pregnancy.
The study, which has been carried out by a team at Cambridge University and published in the medical journal BMJ Open, found 33% of British women had binged on alcohol at least once while they were pregnant. Binge drinking is drinking the equivalent of two-thirds of a bottle of wine in a single sitting.
A further 75% of women said they had consumed alcohol at some point during their pregnancy.
In the UK alone, more than 6,000 babies are born each year with some form of damage caused by their mother's drinking during pregnancy. For this study, the team looked at the data from 18,000 women in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. They found 75% of women in Britain had consumed alcohol at some stage during pregnancy. This compared to 82% of women in ireland, 40% in Australia and 56% in New Zealand.
When it came to binge drinking, 33% of British women had done this – as had 59% of Irish women, 10% of Australians and 9% of those from New Zealand.
The findings have reignited the long-standing debate as to the contradicting advice that is often given to expectant mothers. For example, some health bodies have said mothers-to-be can drink at certain stages of their pregnancy, but not others. Doctors, meanwhile, say the advice should be replaced with just one message for women – to abstain from alcohol completely during pregnancy.
Commenting on the findings, Clare Murphy, Director of External Affairs at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), said: "This analysis suggests women in the UK reduce their alcohol consumption dramatically when they find out they are pregnant. By the second trimester, many women are not drinking at all. Among those who are consuming some alcohol, nearly all are doing so at very low levels where there is no evidence of harm.
"Although the authors describe these findings as raising significant public health concerns, the majority of women in the UK are drinking well within the existing recommendations in the second trimester. The prevalence of unplanned pregnancy in this country means many women may have an episode of binge drinking before they realise they are pregnant, but the monumental drop in reported binges by the second trimester suggests women alter their behaviour very quickly."
However, she added: "It is concerning that the authors of this paper are calling for biological tests so that pregnant women's alcohol intake can be measured. The implication is that women's own reports of their alcohol use cannot be trusted. We would be extremely wary of any measures which sought to further police pregnant women's behaviour, and undermined the important relationship between a pregnant woman and her healthcare provider."
(JP)
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1 In 3 Women Binge Drink During Pregnancy
One in three women in Britain have admitted to binge drinking during pregnancy.
The study, which has been carried out by a team at Cambridge University and published in the medical journal BMJ Open, found 33% of British women had binged on alcohol at least once while they were pregnant. Binge drinking is drinking the equivalent of two-thirds of a bottle of wine in a single sitting.
A further 75% of women said they had consumed alcohol at some point during their pregnancy.
In the UK alone, more than 6,000 babies are born each year with some form of damage caused by their mother's drinking during pregnancy. For this study, the team looked at the data from 18,000 women in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. They found 75% of women in Britain had consumed alcohol at some stage during pregnancy. This compared to 82% of women in ireland, 40% in Australia and 56% in New Zealand.
When it came to binge drinking, 33% of British women had done this – as had 59% of Irish women, 10% of Australians and 9% of those from New Zealand.
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The findings have reignited the long-standing debate as to the contradicting advice that is often given to expectant mothers. For example, some health bodies have said mothers-to-be can drink at certain stages of their pregnancy, but not others. Doctors, meanwhile, say the advice should be replaced with just one message for women – to abstain from alcohol completely during pregnancy.
Commenting on the findings, Clare Murphy, Director of External Affairs at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), said: "This analysis suggests women in the UK reduce their alcohol consumption dramatically when they find out they are pregnant. By the second trimester, many women are not drinking at all. Among those who are consuming some alcohol, nearly all are doing so at very low levels where there is no evidence of harm.
"Although the authors describe these findings as raising significant public health concerns, the majority of women in the UK are drinking well within the existing recommendations in the second trimester. The prevalence of unplanned pregnancy in this country means many women may have an episode of binge drinking before they realise they are pregnant, but the monumental drop in reported binges by the second trimester suggests women alter their behaviour very quickly."
However, she added: "It is concerning that the authors of this paper are calling for biological tests so that pregnant women's alcohol intake can be measured. The implication is that women's own reports of their alcohol use cannot be trusted. We would be extremely wary of any measures which sought to further police pregnant women's behaviour, and undermined the important relationship between a pregnant woman and her healthcare provider."
(JP)
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