Professor Moira Plant: “Pregnant women who drink an occasional beer do not have to worry unduly.” British professor Moira Plant is director of the ‘Alcohol and Health Research Trust’ at the University of West England. Since 1970 she has been working as a therapist and researcher on alcohol consumption, her pet subject being alcohol during pregnancy.

She has written some books and numerous publications on alcohol during pregnancy, served for many years as advisor to the World Health Organisation and presides over the working group on drinking during pregnancy of the International Life Sciences Institute. Moira Plant is in a word a world authority class in the field of alcohol and pregnancy. On 19 October she was a guest speaker in Brussels in the third European ‘Forum for Responsible Drinking’, a study day organized by The Amsterdam Group (www.amsterdamgroup.org).

Alcohol during pregnancy is now a major issue. Why is that?
Prof. Moira Plant: “Excessive alcohol consumption during pregnancy is associated with foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a syndrome characterized by a number of serious birth defects including brain damage, facial deformities and retarded growth. It is also often accompanied by heart, liver and kidney disorders and impaired vision and hardness of hearing. Persons with FAS struggle with serious problems all their lives. By reducing alcohol consumption during pregnancy we hope to put an end to this syndrome.”

How common is foetal alcohol syndrome?
Moira Plant: “That’s hard to day. After all, excessive alcohol consumption is not the only factor involved in FAS. Women living in poverty, with unhealthy diets, using medicines and drugs during pregnancy or with psychiatric problems have a greater risk of a child with FAS through excessive drinking. It’s interesting to note that mothers of FAS children were either physically maltreated or sexually abused when they were children. So we’re faced here with a complex syndrome that’s the subject of no end of discussion. That’s why there are so few figures on its actual prevalence. In the United States in 1997 there was talk of an incidence of 10 per 10 000 live births. In France they estimated that one percent of newborn children have FAS. Most other countries do not have such figures. Then you also have the fact that alcohol abuse during pregnancy is seldom reported: women feel ashamed; they don’t ask for help. Which of course makes recording all the more difficult.”

If overconsumption of alcohol causes serious damage to the foetus, does this mean that low consumption is also harmful?
Moira Plant: “That has been the assumption for some time now. Heavy drinking can cause FAS, so moderate or even light drinking may also be harmful, bundled together under the denominator FASD (foetal alcohol spectrum disorders). This is more a case of neurological disorders of the type behavioural problems, learning difficulties, ADHD, concentration problems and the like.”

Is low alcohol consumption therefore harmful for the foetus?
Moira Plant: “That’s hard to say. Science has no clear answer. Most scientific research is directed towards excessive alcohol consumption, which is very harmful for the baby. There is an urgent need for research into the effects of low consumption, although that’s very difficult to carry out, seeing that so many factors influence a pregnancy.”

So, what message should we give pregnant women?
Moira Plant: “Pregnant women and women who intend to become pregnant are best advised not to drink. However, whether the occasional beer can’t do any harm is far from certain. If you labour the point of the danger of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and give women the impression that every glass will harm their, we burden them with extra feelings of guilt. The stress that this causes is certainly bad for the foetus, and there’s scientific evidence for this too.
What’s more, the damage through excessive consumption is mainly done during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, during which time most women are not even aware of the fact that they’re pregnant! What good is prevention then? Women who drink the odd beer or two shouldn’t worry too much. They are not at risk of FAS. That said, we note that more and more women are drinking alcohol, even during pregnancy. That’s why information and prevention in this field is so important, as long as it doesn’t apportion too much blame.”

  |terug|mail|print|top|