Roughly one-in-thirteen women consume alcohol while pregnant. That’s a slight improvement over the last study performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the early 2000s, but it’s still quite far from where experts would like it. A Healthy People goal was previously set at lowering the number to less than one-in-fifty by 2020, but that hope now seems like a longshot, especially given who the majority of thirsty pregnant women turned out to be.
Education is frequently cited as the biggest weapon to fight disease, but according to US News, it’s the most educated who seem to be doing the most drinking. Roughly ten percent of all women with college degrees reported consuming alcohol during pregnancy and more than fourteen percent of women between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five said they are drinking during their current pregnancies. The CDC study also found between one and two percent of expectant mothers binge drink, and of those, they do so an average of three times a month.
In recent years, some scientific studies have attempted to prove having a moderate amount of alcohol during pregnancy has no affect on the baby, but the CDC still strongly argues there is no safe level. It’s entirely possible having one glass of wine a week does nothing, but given the overwhelming mountain of evidence that even slightly too much can cause big problems for the fetus, it’s the best policy to simply not chance it.
