I've never needed anybody to tell me that going to extremes is bad, especially when it comes to eating and drinking. People don't believe me when I tell them I have never ever dieted and not because I've always had the perfect body, but mostly because I believe in doing everything in moderation. The same goes for drinking. That's why I never really believed that just because I was pregnant, I had to stop consuming alcohol, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
I mean, it's not like I got drunk every night, but I'm not going to lie, I did have several glasses of wine and even champagne throughout both my pregnancies. It wasn't on a daily basis and I had no problems going months without a drink. Now five new Danish studies are suggesting that pregnant women's low to moderate drinking habits may not affect their children's neurological development.
Read more in ¿Qué más?: You'll be shocked at how many women still drink and smoke while pregnant!
But what exactly is low to moderate drinking? Researchers defined it the following way: one to four drinks per week is considered low alcohol consumption. While five to eight weekly drinks is considered moderate. Anything above that, according to the studies, would be considered high consumption and was tied to a lower attention span once children turned 5 years old.
From what I just told you, I obviously fell under those pregnant women who had low weekly consumption levels. Truth is that I would've never imagined drinking more than two drinks per week. The study found that for women like me, drinking alcohol had no adverse effects on their child's neurodevelopment. No real surprise there, since I already said that I'm a huge believer of doing everything in moderation.
What was really surprising is that binge drinking–consuming five or more drinks in a single setting–didn't really have an effect on the baby either. Then again, the women in the studies who binge drank usually did it only once during their pregnancy.
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But even more interesting is the fact that even with the results of these studies, which were mostly funded by the CDC, its doctors will continue to urge pregnant women to stay away from alcohol because of its links to birth defects. As one of its scientists and co-author of three of the studies said, "Drinking during pregnancy is just not worth the risk."
Did you ever drink while you were pregnant? What do you think about drinking while pregnant? Do these studies change your views? Leave us a comment with your opinion.
Image via zippaparazza!/flickr
