New research finds eight out of ten pregnant women drink
THE number of pregnant women who drink has been drastically underestimated, with new research revealing a staggering eight in ten expectant mothers consume alcohol.
The drinking rates uncovered by the research at the University of Newcastle over a nine year period are 64 per cent higher than other studies of pregnancy drinking rates.
And researcher Amy Anderson says it's happening because women are confused about the guidelines on drinking during pregnancy - which regularly change.
An estimated 2600 babies are born each year with brain damage as a result of their mother's drinking.
Although the new study doesn't reveal how many drinks the respondents consumed, previous research has shown even moderate consumption of alcohol by a woman while pregnant can impact a child's IQ and development.
The new data on how many mothers drink will be presented at a conference on Foetal Alcohol Disorders in Brisbane this week. It studied nearly 2,000 pregnant women taking part in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.
Women were included if they first reported being pregnant in 2000, 2003, 2006 or 2009.
Heavy drinkers were more likely to continue consuming more alcohol and women were less likely to drink if they had a health care card or had previously had fertility problems.
Ms Anderson says this suggested that women on lower incomes and those who used fertility treatments might be getting better advice about drinking during pregnancy.
'This suggests the drinking of women of child bearing age needs to be addressed before they get pregnant," she said.
"If they are drinking weekly or are binge drinkers they are more likely to drink while pregnant."
Another factor influencing drinking rates in pregnancy was the official dietary guidelines on the issue, she said.
In 1992 the National Health and Medical Research Council recommended pregnant women abstain from drinking while pregnant.
In 2001 their guidelines changed to allow light drinking during pregnancy but in 2009 the guidelines changed again to state it was safest not to drink while pregnant.
Pregnant women were 1.5 times more likely to drink while pregnant when the guidelines recommended light drinking, she said.
There is a stigma attached to admitting drinking during pregnancy and Ms Anderson says her study tried to get around this by avoiding directly asking women if they drank while pregnant.
Instead, she said they asked women if they were pregnant and much later in the interview asked about their current drinking.
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Other research to be presented at the conference will report a six to sevenfold increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in babies born to mothers who have an alcohol-use disorder.
Previously, the University of Queensland found even children of women who frequently drank as little as two glasses of alcohol at a time while pregnant performed less well in school tests by age 11.
And UK research has found even one glass of wine a week while pregnant can result in a loss of up to four IQ points in the child.
簡単に日本語で要約しておきます。
妊娠中の飲酒率についてもまた多くの統計がありますが、ニューキャッスル大学の調査で判明した妊娠中の飲酒の割合は、別の調査に比べて64％も増加しており、全体の80％に達していることが近頃明らかとなりました。
しかし、飲酒に伴う胎児への影響については乳幼児突然死症候群の割合が6～7倍増加する、一週間に一度、グラス一杯のワインを飲むだけでも子供のIQが4ポイント低下するなど、様々な危険性について報告がなされています。
｢少量であれば大きな危険性はない｣という意見もあれば｢禁酒しなければ胎児に悪影響を及ぼす可能性が高まる｣という見方もあり、妊娠中の飲酒に対しては実に様々な見解があります。
こうした妊娠中の飲酒率の増加は前述したとおり、妊娠中の飲酒に対する見解に一貫性がなく、健康機関が公表するガイドラインにもたびたび変更が生じるため、飲酒に対する危機感が薄れてしまった結果と言えそうです。
妊娠期間中、一切お酒を口にしなかったからといって絶対に健康な子供が生まれるわけでもなく、たとえお酒を飲んでも元気な子供が産まれる場合もあるでしょう。しかし、絶対的な安全量が判明していない現状では、あらゆる危険を排除するためにも妊娠中は禁酒すべきである、と言えるのではないでしょうか。
以下は私のコメントです。
日本とは文化や習慣が違う国で行われた調査であり、日本でも妊娠中の飲酒が80％近くに達しているとは思えませんが、妊娠中の飲酒に関して以前ほど厳しくいわれなくなっているのも事実です。
これからの季節、忘年会・クリスマス・お正月・新年会とお酒を飲む機会は確実に増えてきます。妊娠女性には勇気を持ってお酒を我慢してもらいたいものです。そしてまた、周りの人達も妊娠女性にお酒を勧めないあるいは気遣いを行うなどの配慮も必要となってくるでしょう。
そうなると妊娠女性はもちろんですが、国民全体に再度啓蒙していく必要が出てきますね。
にほんブログ村