Researchers have found that low to moderate alcohol use by pregnant patients may contribute to subtle changes in their babies’ prenatal development.
The study was published in the journal, ‘Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research’.
“In exploratory analyses, the effect on gestational age was more pronounced in male infants, and for birth length, it actually was stronger in females,” Bakhireva said.
She cautioned that these effects should be interpreted with caution because of the study’s limited statistical power to conduct sex-specific analyses and the challenges of accounting for other contributing factors.
There is a good deal of research on the prenatal effects of heavy alcohol use, usually defined as 14 drinks per week, or binge drinking, defined as four drinks or more per occasion, Bakhireva said.