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Light drinking during pregnancy may affect babies鈥� brain development, according to a study that looked for signs of alcohol exposure in newborns鈥� faeces.

Although it鈥檚 well-established that heavy drinking during pregnancy is linked to intellectual disabilities and altered facial features in children, less is known about the effects of light drinking.

Studying this has been difficult, since mothers are often reluctant to admit any level of drinking during pregnancy due to the associated stigma, says聽聽at the University Hospital Erlangen in Germany.

To get around this, Eichler and her colleagues looked for signs of alcohol exposure in the faeces of more than 500 newborn babies. They then assessed their IQ and attention skills when they reached aged 6 or older.

IQ effect

The researchers measured the amount of a chemical called ethyl glucuronide in the newborns鈥� first poo. Ethyl glucuronide is formed by the liver when it breaks down alcohol, and can be absorbed from a pregnant woman鈥檚 bloodstream into the fetus鈥� gut, where it accumulates in its excrement.

Because small amounts of ethyl glucuronide can come from alcohol in mouthwash and medicines, the researchers used a cut-off that was previously shown to reflect the consumption of聽聽during pregnancy.

Above this cut-off, they found that children whose mothers drank during pregnancy scored 4 points lower on average in an IQ test than those whose mothers had abstained. The analysis took age, sex and socioeconomic status into account.

Children whose mothers drank during pregnancy聽also had聽altered patterns of activity of genes that are involved in brain development. Even the lowest ethyl glucuronide levels were associated with slightly reduced IQ and attention span, hinting that no level of drinking is safe.

Face shape

The findings add to growing evidence that occasional drinking during pregnancy may influence child development, says聽聽at the Murdoch Children鈥檚 Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

Muggli and her colleagues recently found that one-year-olds whose mothers drank small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy had聽subtle differences in face shape. However, they didn鈥檛 have any measurable deficits in聽聽when they reached two years of age.

Even so, Muggli recommends not drinking at all when pregnant. 鈥淲hile not necessarily always causing harm, we know that any alcohol consumption changes some biological processes in the cells of the mother and child,鈥� she says.

Current guidelines in the聽,听,听聽and most other countries advise that the safest approach is not to drink at all during pregnancy.

Guidelines versus reality

Despite this, Eichler鈥檚 team found that 23 per cent of mothers in their study drank during pregnancy, as indicated by positive ethyl glucuronide tests in their babies. Another study that surveyed women in the UK and Australia found that , respectively, consumed at least some alcohol during pregnancy.

This may be because women are aware that the evidence for the harms of聽light drinking during pregnancy is not fully established, says聽聽at Cardiff University.

Trickey and her colleagues聽聽about what factors would have made it easier for them to abstain from drinking during pregnancy. The key factors they identified were if the evidence to support complete abstinence was stronger, their partners had cut back on drinking as well, and they had had more social activities that didn鈥檛 revolve around alcohol.

鈥淚t can seem obvious that the way to reduce drinking in pregnancy is to tell women not to drink,鈥� says Trickey. 鈥淗owever, individuals are more likely to change their behaviour when the whole ecological context for that behaviour is changed.鈥�

Read more: Alcohol during pregnancy chemically alters fetal DNA