If there are ever two things that don’t go together, it’s pregnancy and alcohol. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a baby has a 2.9 times higher risk of congenital anomalies if the mother drank spirits during pregnancy. And the statistics speak for themselves: on average, one in six women in Europe drinks alcohol during pregnancy.
The SPKC points out three important things to be aware of: there is no safe amount, time or type of alcohol to drink during pregnancy. Between four and 60 minutes after the mother has consumed alcohol, the concentration in the fetus’s blood will be as high as in the mother’s blood.
Drinking alcohol during the first trimester, when the embryo is developing into a fetus, can affect the development of the body’s basic structures, stresses the SPKC. In the later months, the risk of brain development and growth problems in the baby increases. It should be noted that any harmful substance, including alcohol, ingested by a pregnant woman passes through the placenta and umbilical cord to the fetus and affects its development. And alcohol remains in the water of the fetus even when it can no longer be detected in the mother’s blood.
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy causes a reduction of oxygen in the body tissues of the fetus, such as the brain, heart, blood vessels in the lungs and liver.
