Despite the alcohol-exposed babies' growth remaining within the normal range, the findings published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research finds that drinking has limiting drain development affects.
Nancy Handmaker, a University of New Mexico clinical psychologist with expertise in maternal-fetal health, says, "What this tells us is that the earlier you abstain in a pregnancy, the better the outcome."
Within the heavy drinking group, the ultrasounds revealed that fetuses of the continuing drinkers had a smaller ratio of head-to-abdominal circumference, which indicates reduced skull growth. They also had smaller measures of the cerebellum, a region of the brain involved in many mental, motor and sensory tasks.
The authors speculate that while women's own reports of their drinking habits may not be entirely accurate, the study findings are consistent with other research on fetal alcohol exposure in animals and humans.
