Pregnant women should be asked how much alcohol they drink and have the answer noted on their medical records, says new ‘priority advice’ for the NHS.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advice is designed to help identify problem drinking that can harm babies.
Infants with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) can have lifelong problems.
The safest route during pregnancy is to avoid alcohol altogether.
Babies don’t process alcohol well – passed from mother to child via the placenta, it can stay in their bodies for a long time and prevent them from developing normally in the womb.
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- FASD: What it does to children
There is no specific treatment for FASD – and the damage to the brain and organs like the heart and kidneys is irreversible.
The more someone drinks during pregnancy, the higher their chance of FASD — and there’s no proven “safe” amount of alcohol.
But the risk of harming the baby is “probably low if you only drank small amounts of alcohol before you knew you were pregnant or during pregnancy,” says the Department of Health.
And official statistics suggest that one in ten pregnant women say they have had some alcohol in the past week.
An earlier draft of the recommendations for NHS workers in England and Wales suggested transferring data on a woman’s alcohol consumption to her child’s medical records – but this has now been dropped amid fears women who needed help would lose theirs could hide alcohol consumption.
Royal College of Midwives spokeswoman Lia Brigante said: “As there is no known safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, the RCM believes it is appropriate and important to advise women that the safest approach is to limit alcohol consumption during pregnancy avoiding pregnancy and advocates this .
“We are pleased that the recommendation to record alcohol consumption and then transfer it to a children’s record has been reconsidered.
“This had the potential to disrupt or prevent the development of a trusting relationship between a woman and her midwife.”
Claire Murphy of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service stressed that the vast majority of pregnant women drank less than it was harmful.
“We remain concerned about the routine questioning of women during pregnancy on this issue,” she said.
“Our research shows that women can replace prenatal discussions about alcohol—even if they don’t drink at all—with other issues important to them, such as their own mental health and well-being.
“Those who support pregnant women must be able to provide care that meets the needs of the person before them, not just ticking boxes on a checklist.”
dr Paul Chrisp, director of the NICE Center for Guidelines, said: “This quality standard aims to improve the diagnosis and care of children and adolescents with FASD and to ensure that women receive consistent advice about their alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
“FASD is a set of preventable mental and physical birth defects associated with alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
“Helping women to reduce or avoid drinking during their pregnancy will reduce the number of children and adolescents affected by FASD.”
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