The association between prenatal alcohol exposure, fetal growth and preterm birth: evidence from a systematic review and meta-analyses.

摘要

Controversy surrounds the issue of alcohol and pregnancy. Whether it is safe for pregnant women to consume low levels of alcohol is hotly debated.While it is well recognised that heavy prenatal alcohol exposure can harm the fetus, methodological issues such as sample size limitations and measurement error, limit our ability to conclusively determine if low to moderate levels of prenatal alcohol exposure are harmful.The lack of scientific certainty has resulted in a range of opinions about whether pregnant women should be counselled to abstain from alcohol or advised that low levels of maternal alcohol consumption present low risk to the fetus.