Four-fifths of women drank alcohol ‘close to conception’

By Gary Culliton.

A total of 81 per cent of women reported alcohol consumption during the peri-conceptual period, the prevalence study of alcohol exposure in pregnancy at the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital has shown.

Records on 61,241 women who booked for antenatal care and delivered between 2000 and 2007 were examined as part of this study. Of those women who consumed alcohol during the peri-conceptual period, some 43,455 (71 per cent) reported low alcohol intake (0-5 units per week), another 6,059 (9.9 per cent) reported moderate intake (6-20 units per week) and 114 (0.2 per cent) reported high intake (over 20 units per week).

There was one case of foetal alcohol syndrome in each of these three categories of peri-conceptual drinkers; that is, one of 43,455 in low-intake drinkers, one of 6,059 in moderate-intake drinkers and one of 114 in high-intake drinkers.

Factors associated with high intake included being less than 25 years old, being single, being Irish, having an unplanned pregnancy, and being a smoker or a user of illicit drugs. High alcohol consumption was associated with very pre-term birth. Adverse peri-natal outcomes were not increased in low or moderate drinkers compared to non-drinkers.

A prospective study is also underway to examine the incidence of foetal alcohol effects on “a longitudinal basis”, the Minister for Health Dr James Reilly said.

gary.culliton@imt.ie