Is drinking alcohol while pregnant an unnecessary risk to prenatal development.
In the course of their pregnancy, women are usually warned by doctors concerning the possible risks of taking alcohol during pregnancy period. Some women will still prefer to drink alcohol during their pregnancy either way, but have a limitation a reduction of the drinks they should be taking. For a long time, pregnant women have been indulging in alcoholic beverages and have found that no harm is done to their children. Currently a controversy issue among many people is whether women would compromise fetal development by engaging in the consumption of alcohol, and this issue has left people torn between either of the two sides.
Some women hide behind studies in order to support their belief of the whole lot in moderation, which involves a philosophy that taking a drink in a week will not hurt. This philosophy tends to support the idea that women can take little alcohol, approximately a drink in a week without endangering their unborn babies. There is no known safe quantity of alcohol a woman can take during pregnancy because each woman and each baby is different (Tietje, May 18, 2011). One drink a day can be safe for one woman, but one drink a week could be completely dangerous for another woman. The problem that exists in these scenarios is that one cannot tell which side of the continuum a woman is in until it is very late. It is, therefore, unsafe for a woman to tempt fate by even a single sip of alcohol.
One side of this scenario is that the consumption of alcohol can account for possible causes of dangers during fetal development. Women who decide to take alcohol during their pregnancies put their children that have not yet been born at risk in abundant ways. Children that are born to women who take alcohol during pregnancy risk suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome. The babies born to mothers who drink alcohol do not develop or even grow to their full potential. They have unique facial features, are born underweight and are born with numerous developmental and behavioral complications. In addition, they are at risk for a disorder of fetal spectrum. The fetal spectrum disorder of alcohol leaves children with hitches such as mathematical difficulties, staying focused and lack of memory (News, May 7 2012). Furthermore, children that are exposed to alcohol while in the womb are likely to be more susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse in their adulthoods. When a pregnant woman drinks, the alcohol travels through her bloodstream, and then crosses the placenta, and reaches the unborn baby. The baby breaks down alcohol slowly compared to the mother and so, it ends up with higher levels of alcohol rich blood than the mother. This puts the growing baby into a lot of danger.
Another side to the issues of drinking alcohol by pregnant women is the con position whereby some people think that consumption of alcohol during pregnancy poses little to no danger during fetal development. When taking alcohol during pregnancy, it is important to realize how rapid the body of a woman metabolizes alcohol and if the woman has eaten (News, May 7 2012). The research that has been conducted by neuroscientists suggests that alcohol does vigorous damage during the process of synaptogenesis, during the making of connections by neurons. According to the research of neuroscientists, pregnant women are able to establish when it is right for them to drink. Nevertheless, some researchers have suggested light drinking in place of heavy drinking. Many people have been holding to the argument that for many years, women have been drinking alcohol all through their pregnancy and yet delivered health babies despite their drinking.
Furthermore, taking alcohol during pregnancy is not a necessity, but rather an indulgence. A person may be tempted to ask for the number of people who really drink alcohol for health benefits. The expected answer is a few people, if any do drink for health reasons. This is because most known people drink for social reasons, because it tastes good, it is relaxing or they just like getting drunk. And there is no question that it is unsafe to get drunk while pregnant. As for the reasons stated, are there no better ways of relaxing, or enjoying a social occasion or even preferring something else in the menu that tastes good and then drinking it? A person can enjoy a variety of herbal teas after a long day, for instance (Tietje, May 18, 2011). The insinuation here is that there are plenty to celebrate, enjoy or even socialize without necessarily having to drink alcohol.
Deciding whether to drink or not to drink is not even a question of risks being outweighed by health benefits; it is obvious that there is no benefit from drinking alcohol. It is believed the there are benefits that come from grapes that are used to make wine, but this benefits can as well be obtained from other sources that are non-alcoholic grape juice that has got 100% of grapes or supplements (News, May 7 2012). In so many words, drinking alcohol is not like choosing to take an anti-epileptic or a diabetes medication, a thing that could no doubt make a difference to the pregnant woman’s health, despite the obvious risks. And really if a woman needs alcohol to unwind, then something is wrong with such a woman. There are numerous ways of getting relieved during pregnancy, so opting to drink and expose the unborn baby in harm is so much unjustifiable.
Although there are numerous pros and cons to the issue of pregnant women taking alcohol, there are about three areas of disagreement. One area is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder which is not a medical diagnosis disorder and as such, pregnant women find a reason to take alcohol anyway. Another issue of disagreement is the preference of light drinking over heavy drinking where it is believed that light drinking is even worse than heavy drinking, and people would prefer pregnant women abstaining from drinking alcohol in totality. The third and final area of disagreement in this study is a disagreement over allowing pregnant women to decide on their own pertaining drinking (News, May 7 2012). People have been questioning the capability of pregnant women to make crucial decisions on their own.
Even though both sides to the issue of whether pregnant women should drink present reasonable arguments, the fact that alcohol compromises fetal development is the most sensible and correct as per this study. Researchers have surrendered some imperative evidence concerning the connections of pregnancy, alcohol and fetal development. It has, therefore, been realized that a single drink or even one sip of alcoholic drink can have serious impacts on a child, may it be during their childhood or during adulthood. Women that opt to drink while pregnant also choose to expose their unborn babies’ lives to dangers (Tietje, May 18, 2011). Researchers have done studies that suggest that exposure to alcohol is detrimental only during significant times of brain development. However, this study does not give women a signal to continue drinking because children can still be affected at any stage of their brain development.
References
News, G. H. (May 7, 2012). Is drinking alcohol while pregnant an unnecessary risk to prenatal development? . World health information.
Tietje, K. (May 18, 2011). Drinking While Pregnant: A case against prenatal alcohol consumption. Babble editors.
