The dangers to the baby of pregnant women drinking alcohol

2023-04-28 16:30:11

The pediatrician and professor at the Catholic University of Valencia (UCV), Octavio Berbel, has recommended that pregnant women not drink alcohol “from fertilization” to avoid congenital anomalies and neurodevelopmental problems.

“It is not necessary to stop drinking from the fifth week when women take the test, but from fertilization, since both the central nervous system and the heart begin to form from minute 0”, Berbel reported during the talk ‘From minute zero, 00’ taught at the UCV.

“Alcohol is the leading preventable cause of congenital anomalies and neurodevelopmental problems and the most frequent cause of school failure and intellectual disability”, assured the expert, while pointing out other consequences of alcohol consumption during pregnancy such as fetal alcohol syndrome. “You simply must not drink any alcohol”, has added.

4 out of 10 women drink alcohol during pregnancy

According to the main studies in Spain, 4 out of 10 pregnant women drink alcohol during the first trimester, 23 percent continue during the second and 17 percent during the third. “We have a very high tolerance to consumption in society, and we do not understand that the effects for babies are irreversible and devastating. After two hours, what the mother drinks has already passed to the fetus, but much worse, because a drink for she’s like 15 for the baby,” Berbel explained.

According to the expert, the main effect of alcohol is teratogenic and can change the cell cycle. What produces alterations in any organ or system, such as the lungs, and the immune system, with greater respiratory problems and infections, in addition to the heart with congenital heart disease. Neuronal function can be altered, causing morphological and structural effects such as microcephaly or brain malformations, epilepsy, or functional effects such as memory, learning and socialization problems.

“In many cases, minors may seem normal, but because of the alcohol ingested by their mothers, they will never reach their full potential,” Berbel said. In addition, the placenta loses weight, which causes growth retardation, low weight, premature birth and genetic or epigenetic alterations of the immune and reproductive system and different cancer, endocrine and cardiovascular diseases that will accompany that person until old age. adult.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome It manifests itself in characteristic facial features (small eyes, thin lips), growth retardation, brain abnormalities, and neurodevelopmental impairment with or without intellectual disability.

On the other hand, the congenital ones have many possible manifestations such as ocular and auditory anomalies and congenital heart disease. Finally, neurodevelopmental problems manifest themselves in many ways, among other pathologies, from ADHD. In fact, babies of mothers who have drunk during pregnancy are 15 percent more likely to suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.