One in 10 pregnant women drink alcohol, binge drink: study

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About one in every ten pregnant women is reported to drink alcohol while many resort to binge drinking during their pregnancy, according to a new study conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention last Tuesday.

Cheryl Tan, the lead author of the study, tells Reuters that even more surprisingly, the rate of binge drinking is highest in pregnant women than those who are not. Binge drinking is defined as consumption of four or more alcoholic drinks per day.

Tan shares that alcohol consumption during pregnancy may lead to increased chances of birth defects or developmental disabilities including Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Currently, there is no safe amount of alcohol for pregnant women.

The Los Angeles Times writes that the findings were based on data collected from the years 2011 to 2013. More than 8,300 pregnant women and almost 200,000 non-pregnant women participated in a telephone survey called Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System conducted in the US. Tan shares that the means of communication used where both landline and mobile phones; thus it was difficult to compare the results of this study to previous ones.

The researchers discovered that pregnant women between the ages of 35 to 44 have the highest chances of drinking at least one alcoholic beverage in a month, which makes up almost 19 percent of the survey respondents. Pregnant college graduates also have a tendency to drink twice as more than pregnant non-graduates, possibly to financial capabilities and social influence. Furthermore, non-married pregnant women have a more than five times likelihood of drinking than married pregnant women.

The results are alarming, especially since it suggests that pregnant women who binge-drink on alcohol are more than likely to be alcohol-dependent to begin with. The researchers also believe that some of the pregnant respondents might have underestimated their alcohol consumption or were not aware that they were pregnant at the time.

Either way, the director of National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities from the CDC, Coleen Boyle, tells NBC News that the study can serve as a vital reminder to pregnant women. She believes that putting the unborn child's life in danger because of drinking is not worth the risk. The author of the study also adds that medical experts can assist by screening the alcohol level of their pregnant patients and persuading them to stop once alcohol has been detected.

The study was published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the CDC.