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Alcohol counselling of 85 pregnant problem drinkers: effect on drinking and fetal outcome
Author(s) -
HALMESMÄKI ERJA
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
bjog: an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.157
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1471-0528
pISSN - 1470-0328
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0528.1988.tb06864.x
Subject(s) - alcohol , fetal alcohol syndrome , fetus , gestation , alcohol consumption , medicine , ethanol , alcohol and health , pregnancy , obstetrics , alcohol abuse , psychiatry , biology , biochemistry , genetics
Summary. Eighty‐five pregnant problem drinkers were given intensive counselling throughout gestation to persuade them to reduce or stop their alcohol intake. Nevertheless, 7% of their blood specimens collected at follow‐up visits contained ethanol. Fifty‐five women (65%) were able to reduce their alcohol consumption by at least 50%. Alcohol abuse was associated in a dose‐dependent manner with fetal growth retardation detectable by uftrasonography from 27 weeks gestation. Twenty infants (24%) had a complete fetal alcohol syndrome and 22 (26%) had some features of‘fetal alcohol effects’ (FAE). In addition, the rate of structural malformations was high (13%). Of the women with continuous alcohol abuse 89% gave birth to infants with at least one feature of FAE compared with only 40% of those who decreased their alcohol consumption.