The use of alcohol during pregnancy can result in many serious problems that follow the child through to adulthood, but many women ignore or are unaware of the risks of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). In addition, many women consume alcohol before they realize that they are expecting.

A new study has explored how patterns of drinking behavior, including quantities and timing of the alcohol exposure can affect the development of physical features in the baby. Common manifestations of FAS in physical features include thin vermillion border, microephaly and deficiencies in weight and height development.

The study’s findings appear in the April edition of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently published online. The study is the first to address two problems found in previous studies: the limitations of recall bias and the subjectivity of identifying physical features when alcohol use by the mother is suspected.

The study collected information from the women during pregnancy before the women were aware that they were pregnant. The information was gathered using trained counselors who had developed a rapport with the participants and ensured confidentiality during the entire process. The counselors gathered data about timing in dosage, gestation and patterns of drinking.

To combat the second challenge in avoiding subjectivity in identifying physical features, the study conducted the examinations for the physical features of FAS within a larger study of approximately 70 points of interest, one of which was alcohol use.

While similar studies have been conducted on animal models, it is difficult to determine whether the same results would be replicated in humans or not. The study was led by Haruna Sawada Feldman, a post-doctoral student in the department of pediatrics under the direction of professor Christina Chambers at the University of California, San Diego.

The researchers gathered data related to 992 women and their infants between 1978 and 2005, analyzing alcohol consumption patterns and timing of consumption in connection with certain features connected with FAS. The alcohol consumption was examined using measures of drinks per day, maximum number of drinks and the number of heavy drinking episodes.

The research team discovered that higher levels of prenatal alcohol exposure were associated with a higher risk of a child born with decreased birth length or weight. The strongest association was during the second half of the first trimester. For each drink increased in the average daily consumption, there was an increased risk for various physical defects. Drinking at these levels during pregnancy can lead to a variety of problems for the unborn child.