Alcohol in pregnancy – What is a safe amount to drink?
Alcohol crosses straight
across the placenta. There's no filtering process that goes on, so the baby is exposed to
the same level of alcohol that the mother has in her blood. And in fact it lingers for a little longer because getting rid of it back across the
placenta is a little slower and the baby doesn't metabolize the alcohol as fast as the mother generally does.
So they can in some circumstances have a higher concentration or for a longer period than the mother. We know what it does to our own brain and this little brain is undergoing enormous changes in a very short space of time so it's not surprising that it is affected by alcohol. No alcohol in pregnancy
is the safest choice and if women can make that choice then they'll be ensuring that their
baby's brain is not affected by alcohol.
