Drinking During Pregnancy Can Slow Down Child’s Academic Performance

Here's another reason to quit drinking during pregnancy:  it severely affects the child's academic performance.

Researchers at The University of Queensland found that women, who indulged themselves into regular drinks of at least two glasses, put their children's educational performance at risk.

For the study the experts studied over 7000 English children. They found that children of the mothers who had 150 ml of wine or two stubbies of strong beer during pregnancy had lower scores in NAPLAN-style school tests at age 11. 

Further, the results also showed that the more these mothers drank, the adverse the impact was on the children's academic performance.

"These findings confirm Australian alcohol guidelines that women should avoid alcohol altogether while pregnant or when planning to conceive," Associate Professor Rosa Alati from UQ's School of Population Health and the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research said in a press release. "We could see a clear link between a mother's alcohol consumption and her child's academic outcomes." 

However, the father's drinking habits did not affect the child's grades.

However, the scientists said they found no impact on children performance at the school when their mothers drank just about half a glass of wine every day.

They also added that further research is required to understand its impact. "Other studies of the same cohort of children have found that genetic or environmental factors can mean some children are more susceptible to the impact of alcohol while in the womb than others," she said. 

Co-author of the study, Dr Ron Gray, from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford said that alcohol consumption during pregnancy can have a negative effect on the child's developing brain.

 "In this study that translates into poorer academic outcomes at age 11," Dr Gray said. "It remains unclear whether any amount of alcohol is safe in pregnancy. The safest plan is to avoid it."