Pregnancy can be stressful at times, particularly now with the world full of uncertainties. Having a glass of wine or smoking once in a while might relax you temporarily, yet according to research, it can disrupt the brain development of the child. That includes a minimum level of exposure as well. The risk of multiple adverse outcomes increases with the use of tobacco, alcohol, or both.
The study published in the journal JAMA Network Open warns parents against drinking or smoking at any level during pregnancy — from low to high. Lauren C. Shuffrey, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University Medical Center and one of the study’s lead authors said, “Our study is the first to find that any level of prenatal alcohol exposure, whether it be only in the first trimester, low continuous throughout pregnancy, or high continuous exposure, are all associated with changes in newborn brain activity, measured using EEG (electroencephalography).”
Despite various studies proving the negative impact of prenatal drinking or smoking, some consider an occasional glass of wine to be safe. Contradicting the same, Shuffrey said, “These results also suggest that research still hasn’t determined a safe level of alcohol or tobacco during pregnancy.”
The study was conducted on 1,739 mother-newborn pairs from December 2011 to August 2015 at clinical sites in Cape Town, South Africa, and the Northern Plains region of the US. The babies were born between 37 and 41 weeks of gestation and to mothers giving birth to only one child. Mothers on psychiatric medication were also excluded.
Using infants' brain activity during sleep, this well-designed study concluded that alcohol exposure during pregnancy is one of the primary causes of preventable intellectual disability. And prenatal smoking is one of the most modifiable causes of post-birth disease and death.
Dr. Susan Walley, professor of pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, clarified, “The (graphics) really show the difference in brain activity. This is after the baby is born, and they're showing a big difference, even with low levels of (alcohol and tobacco) use."
EEG patterns that have been previously used to measure the associations between PAE (prenatal alcohol exposure) and PTE (prenatal tobacco exposure) were used in this research. Previous studies were done on smaller sample sizes and didn’t have a scope as broad as this one. The research has also analyzed 23 previously published studies and determined PAE impacted the babies’ cognitive function negatively and also increased the chances of lower birth weight.
Dr. Rashmi Byakodi, a physician and a health and wellness writer, explained that the effects of PAE and PTE are innumerable. Byakodi told Healthline, “Studies have revealed that maternal consumption of alcohol or smoking during pregnancy might alter the autonomic nervous system.”
While babies born to mothers exposed to tobacco during pregnancy had lower beat-to-beat heart rate variability in quiet sleep, those born to mothers with PAE had lower global heart rate variability in active sleep.
Source: Healthline, JAMA Network Open