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23rd November 2005 Scans show alcohol induced twitches in unborn babies Scientists have captured graphic images of the damage done to unborn babies as a result of women drinking during pregnancy. The findings, by Peter Hepper, a professor at Belfast University’s foetal behaviour research unit, show that just one glass of wine a week can cause spasms in the foetus. The Department of Health (DoH) advises pregnant women to limit their alcohol to one or two glasses of wine a week but the new research appears to back the view that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The study followed 40 women through their pregnancies. None of the mothers was asked to drink but 20 admitted that they would continue to drink between one and four units of alcohol a week during their pregnancy. One unit is equivalent to a glass of wine. The other 20 drank no alcohol. In the first half of the study all the women underwent three ultrasound scans during the first 18 weeks of their pregnancy. In the second half, the women had four more scans at 20, 25, 30 and 35 weeks. The scans lasted up to 45 minutes to try to capture hyperactivity. During the first 18 weeks of pregnancy, babies have a startle reflex which causes them to jump involuntarily at external stimuli such as loud noises. From 19 weeks when the nervous system is fully developed, this reflex is replaced by a calmer one. Professor Hepper found that the babies of the mothers who continued to drink, whether one or four units, maintained the startle reflex throughout the pregnancy, while the babies of the mothers who totally abstained from alcohol lost the reflex at 18 weeks gestation. Hepper concluded that maternal alcohol consumption seriously affected the developing nervous system in the unborn baby. He said, "Our study shows that alcohol is having an effect on the baby even at low levels and that is quite disturbing . "This indicates that the nerve pathways in the brain have been damaged "We don’t think there is a safe limit for alcohol consumption in pregnancy." The Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Trust estimates that between 6,000 to 12,000 babies are affected in the UK each year. Margaret Burrows, a clinical geneticist at Leicester royal infirmary, said, "The startle movement in the womb is clearly not normal and would seem to indicate the child has the traits of fidgeting which we see in attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). "We believe that a proportion of children who have ADHD may have developed it as a result of their mother’s drinking during pregnancy." Some MPs are now calling for the government to place warnings on bottles about the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. Where to next?
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