Babies to be tested to detect drinking during pregnancy
Samples from hundreds of babies born at the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital in Glasgow are being studied for molecules which stay inside unborn children when their mothers drink.
Results from an initial pilot study suggest around 40% of mothers consume some alcohol while pregnant, with about 15% drinking more than one or two small glasses of wine a week.
Drinking in pregnancy can lead to long-term harm to the baby, and the more alcohol consumed, the greater the risk, the Scottish government warns.
Previous research found that even moderate drinking during the earliest months of pregnancy may be damaging.
Funded by Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, the latest study is to take 750 samples of meconium — the first faeces of a newborn — to look for high levels of alcohol by-products. Mothers will also be asked to complete a lifestyle questionnaire.
The occasional drink will not be highlighted by the study, researchers said.
It is hoped the work will lead to targeted messages and interventions and reduce the effects of foetal alcohol syndrome, a condition where children suffer developmental problems because their mothers drank during pregnancy.
Consultant neonatologist Dr Helen Mactier, who is leading the research, said: “Alcohol consumption in pregnancy is almost certainly contributing to a lot of learning disability in Scotland and learning disability is associated with poor school performance and criminality in the long term.”
Dr Mactier said mothers from all walks of life are involved in the study.
She added: “There is an assumption that all problem drinking in pregnancy is associated with poverty and there is no evidence to confirm that.
“It is much easier to conceal problem drinking if you are affluent and if you are clever.”
She added: “I think we’re very well aware that women commonly under-report alcohol consumption in pregnancy. They are scared of repercussions and of being stigmatised and alcohol consumption is normalised in the west of Scotland particularly.
“What one person considers a small drink could be considered a larger drink by someone else. I would concur with the chief scientist’s message that women should not be drinking at all in pregnancy.”
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said pregnant women “need support, not surveillance”.
A spokeswoman added: “This appears to be a worrying development in what is now the increasing policing of pregnancy.
“It is known that consuming large quantities of alcohol throughout pregnancy can result in lifelong learning disabilities, but little evidence of this at lower levels.
“It is unclear how the information gathered in this study will be used, and whether this will set a precedent for more widespread testing of babies — in order to ‘test’ their mothers’ claims of how much drank while pregnant.”
