The amount of alcohol pregnant women choose to drink will now be added to their medical notes, under new guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Nice says the policy change will help doctors spot problem drinking that can affect babies. Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) can leave infants with lifelong issues. Avoiding alcohol whilst pregnant is the safest approach.
Alcohol is passed from the mother to child through the placenta, it may stay in their body for an extended period of time and prevent them from developing normally in the womb.
What are the new guidelines and how will the notes be recorded?
The new guidelines state that pregnant women should be asked about their alcohol intake and that their response should be recorded.
Previously, it was suggested that NHS staff in England and Wales should collect data on pregnant women’s alcohol intake and then add it to the mother’s and the child’s medical notes. However, this idea has been scrapped, after concerns that women who needed help might hide their drinking.
“We are pleased to see that the recommendation to record alcohol consumption and to then transfer this to a child’s record has been reconsidered,” says Lia Brigante, spokesperson for the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). “This had the potential to disrupt or prevent the development of a trusting relationship between a woman and her midwife.”
Why are the new guidelines being introduced?
The idea of recording a woman’s alcohol intake on her own notes is still controversial, but health officials say this is needed to help spot cases of problem drinking and prevent foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
“FASD is a series of preventable mental and physical birth defects associated with alcohol use during pregnancy,” says Dr Paul Chrisp, director of NICE’s centre for guidelines.
“Helping women to drink less or no alcohol during their pregnancy will reduce the number of children and young people affected by FASD.
What does the NHS say about drinking in pregnancy?
There’s a higher chance of FASD if someone drinks high quantities of alcohol while pregnant, but there’s no proven “safe” level of alcohol.
Currently, there’s no specific treatment for FASD and the damage to the organs, such as the brain, heart and kidneys, are permanent.
However the possibility of hurting the baby is “likely to be low if you have drunk only small amounts of alcohol before you knew you were pregnant or during pregnancy”, says the Department of Health.
Midwives recommend avoiding alcohol during pregnancy to be on the safe side. “As there is no known safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, the RCM believes it is appropriate and important to advise women that the safest approach is to avoid drinking alcohol during pregnancy and advocates for this,” Brigante says.