French Women Continue to Drink Alcohol While Pregnant
By Danell Swim
May 5, 2008
More than half of women in France continue to drink alcohol during their pregnancies, according to a new French study. However, the researchers also found that most of these women are uninformed about the risks to their babies’ health.
“Our results surprised us because we didn’t think that the women were so massively going to answer that they were so ignorant of the dangers of alcohol during pregnancy,” said Ingrid de Chazeron of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, who led the study.
The study, published in the May issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, compiled data from 837 pregnant women at public and private obstetric centers who participated in the study between July 2003 and June 2004.
The women responded to a survey that asked about their drinking patterns during pregnancy, and 52.2 percent said they had used alcohol — having at least one drink —during the time. The researchers noted this was a “huge difference” from the United States, where only 12 percent of pregnant women report any alcohol use. Moreover, 13.7 percent of the participants said they had at least one binge-drinking episode where they had five or more drinks on one occasion.
de Chazeron and her colleagues said that drinking wine and beer is part of the “regular eating habits” in France and there is a lot of controversy over the safety of occasional drinking during pregnancy.
“At the time of our study, I don’t think that women had been aware of the risks to their baby’s health about drinking,” de Chazeron said. “First, there was not enough campaigning about the dangers of alcohol during pregnancy … and [women] do not believe that small consumptions, even regularly, can influence the future of their child.”
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Oh these poor babies.
I hope tsomeone takes the steps to get the Real information out there.