Even Moderate Drinking During Pregnancy has Effects on Children's I.Q.s

During the embryonic stages of development, many outside influences can affect the characteristics of the baby. One of these influences is whether or not the mother consumes alcohol during pregnancy and the quantity consumed. It is commmonly thought that drinking a small amount of alcohol during pregnancy is completely harmless towards the child, but this is not entirely true. A recent study conducted showed that even moderate drinking (less than 1-6 units of alcohol per week) can have major effects on the I.Q. of the child born.

The way this study worked was by looking at moderate alcohol intake in over 4,000 women and using the technique of Medelian Randomization,which is a way of finding the links between exposures and later diseases, using genetic variants that modify exposure levels and are not influenced by other factors. This study was also proved to be more accurate than others of its kind because it used genetic variation as a basis of determining if alcohol was the only cause of defect.

During the study, each mother included was given a series of questionnaires about their drinking habits to determine if they qualified as a moderate drinker. Eight years after their children were born, their I.Q.'s were tested and the results showed that the children of even moderate drinkers had significant differences in I.Q. compared to those of children whose mothers were non-alcoholics. Speaking about the results, Dr Sarah Lewis, said: "Our results suggest that even at levels of alcohol consumption which are normally considered to be harmless, we can detect differences in childhood IQ, which are dependent on the ability of the fetus to clear this alcohol. This is evidence that even at these moderate levels, alcohol is influencing fetal brain development."

The use of Mendelian Randomization in this study showed that the work of Gregor Mendel can be applied to help find solutions to problems today. This study also showed how genetic variation was used to investigate the effects of alcohol. My thoughts after reading this article were that mothers should abstain from alcohol 100% during pregnancy because of the potentially harmful effects it can have in the future on their child.I also think that this study could lead to future investigations on the effects of alcohol on humans and the longtime effects it could possibly have.