Are the CDC’s new guidelines on alcohol use during pregnancy too strict?

New guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on women’s alcohol consumption during pregnancy have experts scratching their heads, and questioning whether they go too far. Some consider the new guidance from the CDC as being unreasonably strict, as it states that women should never drink unless they are taking birth control.

The CDC says the reason is to cut down on incidents of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a condition that the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrom (NOFAS) defines as “a range of effect that can occur in an individual who is prenatally exposed to alcohol” that can include mental, physical, behavioral and learning disabilities that can have lifelong implications. According to the CDC the risk is real, since about half of all pregnancies are unplanned.

WebMD states that FAS is caused by a woman’s alcohol use during pregnancy, but specifies that it is women who drink frequently (defined as four or five drinks or more per day) that greatly increases the chances of babies being born with FAS. They also say that only one drink per day increases a baby’s risk of FAS.

However the CDC’s new guidelines are seen as not only protecting fetuses, but also protecting potential fetuses, which many consider unreasonable. The expanded warning comes from a concern that women will potentially damage their fetus through drinking before they even know they are pregnant. New data shows that every month an estimated 3.3 million women are at risk of exposing a developing baby to alcohol unintentionally. Officials also estimate that 75 percent of women who are trying to get pregnant do not quit drinking until they know they have conceived.

NOFAS has not as yet offered an official position on the CDC’s strict new guidelines, but NOFAS president Tom Donaldson says he understands how the message has gotten confused. He thinks that the CDC advice might confuse women, or cause unhealthy anxiety in pregnant women.

OB-GYN Dr. Pamela Snook agrees with other doctors that there is no “safe” amount of drinking defined for pregnancy, because studying it would involve having women drink to evaluate how their babies turn out, which would be an unethical process. However in other countries, including some in Europe, it is traditional to drink small amounts of alcohol, and they do not have increased incidences of FAS.

Dr. Cole Greves is a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Orlando Health’s Winnie Palmer Hospital. He is adamant that no amount of alcohol during pregnancy is safe. He agrees that women need to be cautious about drinking before they know they are pregnant. He sees that women already blame themselves for anything that goes wrong with their children’t health. He said “I think that’s the goal of this message – to get out in front of that situation.”