Women still drinking while pregnant, CDC says

July 19, 2012|By Andrea K. Walker

Women continue to mix cocktails and pregnancy despite the dangers it can pose to unborn babies.

New government data found that 7.6 percent of women drank while pregnant and 1.4 percent of those moms binged on alcochol and beer. Binge drinking involves four or more drinks on one occasion.

The Centers for Disease Control and Preventiion used data from a telephone survey of more than 345,000 women aged 18 to 44 to come up with its analysis. Of those, 13,880, or 4 percent, were pregnant.

Women aged 35 to 44 were the most likely to drink when pregnant.

Women with a high school diploma or less were more likely to binge drink, as were those who were not married.

Drinking while pregnant can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome and other fetal alcohol disorders that can cause lifelong disabilities, the CDC said.

 

Baltimore Sun Articles
|
|
|
Please note the green-lined linked article text has been applied commercially without any involvement from our newsroom editors, reporters or any other editorial staff.