Why doctors are wary of increased alcohol consumption during pregnancy

The idea of drinking while pregnant sounds like a generational punchline. One grandmother drank beer to fatten her fetus, and another drank martinis every night to get a healthy night’s sleep. An action that would probably be unthinkable in America today.

However, after declining sharply over the past 50 years, rates of alcohol use during pregnancy in the United States began to rise a decade ago. A STAT analysis of 2024 government data found that more than one in eight pregnant adults reported drinking alcohol in the past month, making alcohol consumption a more common national phenomenon than gestational diabetes. Among drinkers, a quarter reported having had four or more drinks at once in the previous month, meaning they had binge-drinked.

Although rates of alcohol use during pregnancy are lower in the United States than in some other countries, the effects are felt all around Americans. Alcohol is, by some estimates, the leading cause of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), the number one neurodevelopmental condition in this country.

Although the exact prevalence of FASD is difficult to measure, a recent federally funded community study found that as many as 1 in 20 school-age children may have the disorder caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. By comparison, about 1 in 31 American children has autism, according to recent estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers say not all fetuses exposed to alcohol will suffer from birth defects or develop intellectual disability. However, everyone born with FASD was harmed, especially by alcohol. They worry that this point is being obscured as Americans question conventional medical advice to avoid all alcohol during pregnancy.

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