Physicians have advised pregnant women to abstain from drinking alcohol to reduce the chance of newborns with small heads also known as microcephaly.
According to medical experts, alcohol consumption during pregnancy irrespective of the quantity exposes the unborn baby to the risk of poor brain development.
A consultant gynaecologist, Dr. Stanley Egbogu, who works at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Awka, Anambra, disclosed this in an Interview with the Punch. He said, “What we advise is that they should abstain from alcohol. That is the baseline.
“Normally, if a woman has not been taking alcohol, most likely she will not take it during pregnancy. So, you have a situation where most women may have been taking alcohol before even they got pregnant.
“Alcohol affects every organ of the baby and might lead to a baby having a small head – microcephaly. It affects the heart, kidney, and liver of the baby,” he said.
According to Egbogu, microcephaly is a condition in which a baby’s head is significantly smaller than expected, often due to abnormal brain development.
He urged pregnant women still taking alcohol to stop while reminding them that there is no known safe amount of alcohol consumption during pregnancy
Also, data from the American Addiction Centres showed that taking alcohol during pregnancy was the leading preventable cause of birth defects.
“Pregnant women and those trying to become pregnant should avoid alcohol completely until after the baby is born. Despite varying guidelines, there is simply no safe amount of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
“Drinking alcohol of any kind during pregnancy can cause premature labour, miscarriage, stillbirth, and a range of developmental, physical, mental, and emotional disabilities and disorders in the baby, collectively referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders”, the centre warned.
