Doctors Research Alcohol’s Impact on Mother-Child Bond during Pregnancy

Expectant mothers recover longer after delivery and they bond harder with their newly born children, according to researchers from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland who surveyed 130 women to discover the impact of alcohol on the health of a mother rather than a child.


 Around a third of pregnant women was revealed to have a regular intake of an equivalent to half a pint of beer or a glass of wine as often as once a month or even up to three times a week. Although initially the research was focused on the babies with prenatal exposure to alcohol, this research confirmed that even fairly low level of drinking during pregnancy may have negative effects on women who are therefore more exposed to depression, anxiety and stress, and additionally may face behavioral difficulties later in life with children.


At the British Psychological Society’s annual conference in Brighton, a researcher Eilidh Duncan confirmed that expectant mother’s attachment to her son or daughter is weakened as long as babies exposed to alcohol are more likely to behave badly compared to newly borns of those women who abstained during pregnancy.
“Previous research found there may be some behavioral difficulties later in life with children who were prenatally exposed to alcohol”

Besides, researchers discovered that those women who went on drinking take longer to recover after giving birth as drinker mothers’ stay in hospitals is generally lengthened up to around one additional day, even though their labor is no more complicated than that of teetotalers and their babies were no more likely to be premature or under weight. This considerably increases spendings for the National Health Service, said Dr Katrina Forbes-McKay, of Robert Gordon University.

“Alcohol use can be directly associated with lower levels of mother-child bonding.” the scientist also added.
Controversy about alcohol and pregnancy has been a topic in point for numerous researches which provided with controversial recommendations, as long as some experts say moderate drinking will not impact pregnancy okay, while others believe that a glass of beer, wine or cocktail for expectant women is like playing Russian Roulette with baby’s health.

Yet the bulk of professionals insists that even very insignificant amounts of alcohol damage the unborn child and increase the probability of foetal alcohol syndrome, which is annually diagnosed in around 100 babies. Affected children are abnormally small at birth, small-eyed with flattened features, heart and kidney abnormalities. Most suffer from some degree of mental disability, poor coordination, a short attention span and emotional and behavioral problems.

The Department of Health of Great Britain recently grew stricter and now advises expectant mothers to be absolute teetotalers, while the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are less draconian. These institutions suggest that women should abstain from drinking at the early stages of pregnancy or do drink no more than one to two units once or twice a week.