Alcohol consumption during pregnancy and newborn outcome: a study in Brazil

Neonates born to mothers of low socioeconomic status were examined to assess the intrauterine effects of alcohol. Mothers' alcohol use during pregnancy ranged from abstention to heavy drinking. The newborns were randomly selected and examined without knowledge of the drinking history of the mothers. Likewise, the mothers' interviewers had no information about the clinical condition of the infants. Anthropometric measures showed the nutritional states of the mothers to be uniformly distributed among those mothers graded from abstainers (grade 0) to heavy drinkers (grade IV). Six of the neonates born to 26 heavy drinkers, four born to 103 mothers graded as I, II and III drinkers and 3 born to 50 abstainers were considered to show signs of prenatal effects of alcohol, characterized by small size (weight and/or height) for gestational age, microcephaly and short palpebral fissures. The number of such infants was significantly greater among the neonates born to heavy drinking mothers.