Research Paper on Drinking Alcohol During Pregnancy

Introduction

Pregnant women are at a higher risk of exposing their developing babies to severe health conditions if they consume alcohol during pregnancy. The abnormalities to children of drinking women are the poor reasoning abilities, slow learning in school especially arithmetic operations, little body sizes, small heads, poor memory as well as poor vision. It is thus a recommendation that they entirely abstain from drinking. In the United States, many adults are likely aware that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can be harmful to the developing child. It is known from a variety of researchers conducted by the concerned stakeholders on a target population, where the findings justify that the drinking during pregnancy can be harmful to the development of the fetus. In this case, the finding of the research recorded in the journals; The Journal of American Medical Association and the Journal BMJ Open; verify that drinking during pregnancy is harmful to the developing child in the womb.

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Research Findings from BMJ Open: Effects of Light to Moderate Drinking on the Developing Child

First, the research findings recorded in the journal BMJ Open indicate that light to moderate drinking rings about defects to the developing child. They include the birth of a child with a small head or even with poor vision. They can get summed up in physical, behavioral, mental and learning disabilities. It composed the results of the research carried out by the UK's University of Bristol. The team found 26 studies of the previous research on the topic published and studied the results together. They found out that light drinking has a potential of inculcating higher risk of preterm birth and delivering a small baby. Hey also recommended that there is no safe level of consumption of alcohol, hence the need to entirely abstain from alcohol consumption by pregnant women (Gitlin, M. 2011).

Research Findings from Journal of the American Medical Association: Prevalence and Impact of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

On the other hand, research conducted and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that more children have gotten to be affected by drinking during pregnancy. It further established that 1 in every 20 United States children is harmed by the alcohol in the womb, increasing the risk of contracting a spectrum of disorders that are caused by maternal drinking. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders refer to a group of conditions that include abnormal growth as well as unusual facial features, behavioral problems and poor intellectual abilities, as reported by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Along the study period, it was established that the number of women drinking during pregnancy was higher than expected. Every 1 in 10 women reported drinking in the last 30 days of the research period, with slightly more than 3% binging (Abel, E. L. 1984).

According to Christina Chambers, one of the authors of the study, their results are closer to the reality. They categorized 222, out of thousands of participants, as the first graders with fetal spectrum disorders. In this pool of students, only two had previously been diagnosed with a fetal spectrum disorder. For all this data, Christina Chambers sent trained experts to the field of study - the school - to collect information using widely accepted and known methods, which was regarded by many as the most reliable approach used for estimating how fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are prevalent.

Conclusion

Cumulatively, the two types of research conducted and recorded in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the published journal in the BMJ Open both indicate that drinking during pregnancy induces the preterm birth and birthing small baby as well as another spectrum of fetal disorders respectively. In this case, the parents in America are likely in the know of the dangers waged on fetus by drinking, owing to the availability of such information.

References

Abel, E. L. (1984). Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects. Boston, MA: Springer US.

Gitlin, M. (2011). The baby boomer encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood.