Sexually active women of reproductive age who drink alcohol should be on birth control.
That’s the recommendation U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made this week with overwhelming evidence that alcohol consumption during pregnancy, even before the woman knows she’s pregnant, poses significant risks of her newborn having fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or the more severe fetal alcohol syndrome.
“An estimated 3.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 are at risk of exposing their developing baby to alcohol because they are drinking, sexually active, and not using birth control to prevent pregnancy,” the CDC Vital Signs report says.
Of every four women who stop using birth control to become pregnant, three continue drinking alcohol, it said, recommending they stop drinking or use birth control to prevent irreversible birth defects in their unborn children.
“Alcohol can permanently harm a developing baby before a woman knows she’s pregnant,” stated Anne Schuchat, CDC principal deputy director. “About half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and even if planned, most women won’t know they are pregnant for the first month or so, when they might still be drinking. The risk is real. Why take the chance?”
The Catholic Church embraces the CDC message, within limits.
“We are fully behind the CDC when it says alcohol is dangerous to the health of the embryo and women should plan their pregnancy and avoid alcohol,” said Duquesne University bioethicist Gerard Magill. But the church supports only natural contraception, including abstinence or the rhythm method that limsexual activity.
Giovanni Laneri, medical director of the Newborn Nursery at West Penn Hospital, said birth defects from alcohol involve the brain and body.
“During the first trimester it affects fetal growth,” he said, referring to his 12-page paper on alcohol’s impact on the fetus and newborn. “During the second trimester alcohol’s effect will mostly be on growth with the baby being small for its gestational age. We know that alcohol causes brain injury and multi-organ injury, depending on when the fetus is exposed.”
The take-home message, said Hyagriv Simhan, executive vice president of Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC’s department of obstetrics and gynecology, is the importance of planned pregnancies. Women also should avoid illicit drugs but continue taking safe medications for high blood pressure, diabetes and other health problems.
“It is important for women in their reproductive years to plan the pregnancy and if pregnancy is not in the plans, they should get medical advice for contraception,” he said. “This is an important issue and an incredibly common one and hopefully the statement from the CDC will increase public awareness of the problem.”
Last October, the American Academy of Pediatrics published an updated report finding that alcohol-related disorders in newborns go unrecognized leading to a greater frequency than previously thought.
Babies with the syndrome, it found, are notably smaller, often with flatness in the middle region of the face. It’s also strongly associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the inability to form concepts, make plans, speak fluently, and engage normally in social interaction and relationships.
David Templeton: dtempleton@post-gazette.com.
First Published: February 4, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
