Moderate Drinking During Pregnancy Adversely Impacts Child's Results at School

A latest study claims that moderate drinking during pregnancy later affects the performance of children at school.

The latest study, conducted by researchers at the University of Queensland, says that women who regularly drink as little as two glasses of wine per drinking session during pregnancy can adversely affect their children's performance at school.

"These findings confirm Australian alcohol guidelines that women should avoid alcohol altogether while pregnant or when planning to conceive. We could see a clear link between a mother's alcohol consumption and her child's academic outcomes," said the study lead associate professor Rosa Alati from UQ's School of Population Health and the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research.

The research was based on a long term British study "The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children". The study analyzed more than 7000 English students and noticed that the women who drank 150 ml glasses (about 10 oz) of wine during the pregnancy, had kids who scored less in NAPLAN-style school tests at the age of 11.

Women who frequently drank wine or beer in the quantities mentioned above were more likely to have kids who underperformed at school.

On the other hand, the level of alcohol intake by fathers did not affect the kids' performance at school. The researchers also noticed that when women drank one unit of alcohol a day i.e. half a glass of wine, it did not lower the kids' academic ability.

"Other studies of the same cohort of children have found that genetic or environmental factors can mean some children are more susceptible to the impact of alcohol while in the womb than others," she explained in a news release.

According to Dr Ron Gray, from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and a co-author of the study, alcohol consumption during pregnancy has a toxic effect on the brain of the developing fetus.