In England and Scotland, 24% of adults regularly drink over the chief medical officer’s low-risk guidelines, and 27% of drinkers in Great Britain binge drink on their heaviest drinking days.1A recent article2 suggests 41.3% of pregnant women in the UK consume alcohol at some point during pregnancy, which can be extrapolated to a modelled estimate prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) of 3.2%. Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is the leading preventable cause of intellectual and developmental disabilities in the world. FASDs result from PAE. The shame and stigma of drinking during pregnancy and the fear of losing their children often prevent women from honestly disclosing their usage histories with their child’s paediatrician. Keeping these ‘secrets’ about alcohol consumption makes it difficult to make a correct diagnosis in children and can lead to relapse, stress, depression, anxiety and an escalation in drinking. Women should not be blamed or shamed when they expose a pregnancy to alcohol or other substances.
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