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A GLOBAL STUDY published recently suggests that over 60% of Irish mothers drink alcohol during pregnancy.
The study by The Lancet places Ireland first in the top five countries in the world who drink during pregnancy, along with Russia (37%), the United Kingdom (41%), Denmark (46%), and Belarus (47%) – all European countries.
The study was conducted by linking rates of drinking during pregnancy (as reported by mothers in batches of local studies) to rates of foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) which is directly caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
Researchers analysed over 20,000 studies which documented mothers’ reports of drink intake during pregnancy, and excluded any studies with a bias – finishing with 365 studies.
This included a batch of Irish studies representing Irish mothers from between 1990-2011 and compared these with rates of FAS per population.
Dr Jennifer Donnelly, Consultant Obstetrician at the Rotunda Hospital says the study gives a great oversight into the global rates of alcohol usage during pregnancy, and that the results for Ireland were “startling”.
She says that although there are some limitations, such as the study is based on other reports and that the criteria for what ‘drinking’ during pregnancy is defined as, it’s more likely that the figures are a conservative figure for rates of drinking worldwide.
“There has been an increase in [excessive] drinking in Ireland, especially among young women, who tend to binge drink and then abstain for a while. Then there are those who drink alcohol at the start because they don’t know they’re pregnant.”
In 2008, Dr Donnelly conducted a study of alcohol consumption among 1,000 first-time mothers, and got a figure of 50% – which is very close to The Lancet’s findings.
Foetal alcohol syndrome
FAS is caused when alcohol blocks oxygen and nutrients from travelling through the placenta to the baby. Altered facial features is another sign of FAS, and occurs when the mother takes alcohol between months 6-9 of the pregnancy, which is when facial features form.
It’s not known how much alcohol you can consume before FAS begins; so complete abstinence of alcohol during pregnancy is advised.
Children with FAS have problems with their neurological development, and abnormal growth, which may include learning disabilities, poor academic achievement, poor organisation, lack of inhibition, difficulty writing or drawing, or balance problems.
An estimated 119,000 children are born with FAS worldwide, according to this same study, but not every woman who drinks while pregnant will have a child with FAS.
“We estimated that one in 67 mothers who drink during pregnancy will deliver a child with FAS,” says lead author Dr Svetlana Popova.
This was a conservative estimate, according to the researchers, as it doesn’t include other types of conditions caused by alcohol during pregnancy.
The lowest levels of FAS were in Middle Eastern regions, where alcohol consumption is illegal or prohibited by religious beliefs.
Updated, 1pm.
More natural forests are needed
Instead of plastic ones.
Are they talking about forests or the sterile non-native conifer plantations which blight our landscape and threaten the survival of species such as Hen Harrier? Judging the reasoning behind the groups in question I’m reckoning they’re talking about the plantations rather than native or semi-natural woodlands rich in biodiversity.
Special branch should look into this.
i think they are on leave at the moment
Its not the number of trees being planted but how bio diverse the forests are. Acres of conifer plantations do more environmental harm than good
especially to rivers, the massive amounts of sulfer put in the soil runs off and drops the Ph of rivers ruining spawning grounds
Here we go, a report to soften us up for the privitisation of Coillte, the largest single landowner in the State
Sounds about right.
That’s a great pic of lough Tay in county Wicklow. A member of the Guinness family has a wonderful house down there, although he may have passed away. I have cycled and hiked over these Wicklow mountains and really feel that they should be covered in forests. This land was covered at one time with oak and other trees. The govt needs to get the finger out and start to increase Irish woodlands. If you leave the land alone the trees will come back naturally.
Jim Jameson
Why would you need to be softened up for a Government sale of the collet harvesting rights? Have you seen the appalling Annual Reports over the last few years?
In 2011 they had sales of 259 m and only managed a profit of 19.9m and this is with free land a story wen a massive one million acres.
Worse than this their pension fund has a shortfall of nearly a hundred million Euro. How do you manage that trick with just one thousand employees? The answer is simple ……..make it a publicly owned enterprise and they’ll just milk it for all it’s worth.
See the harvesting rights for up to two billion and let someone else do the real job of managing the business as that clearly hasn’t been done for some time.
We get to keep the land. We get money for new investment in the economy and the workers get their pension funds fixed.
With proper management exports will increase and the State will accrue further profit taxes.
Simple.
….sell the harvesting rights….. Mea culpa
have your say