Drinking during pregnancy increase infection risk for baby

Few days ago new study suggests mothers who drink during pregnancy to quit drinking alcohol because of high infection risk for their newborns.

Theresa Gauthier, an assistant professor of pediatrics and attending neonatologist at Emory University, in Atlanta, said that excessive alcohol use, especially during the second trimester, increased the risk of newborn infection by more than three times relative to babies whose mothers reported not drinking alcohol in the second trimester.

For this study Gauthier's team studied over 800 mothers and their babies. 30% of them were mothers who frequently consumed alcohol and tobacco.
The study results showed that almost 6% of the infants had an infection diagnosed soon after delivery. "Mothers who reported alcohol use, excessive drinking or smoking in pregnancy were more likely to have a newborn diagnosed with an infection than were mothers who reported abstaining from alcohol or cigarettes," Gauthier noted.

The study also found that smoking by women at any time before and during pregnancy increased the risk of newborn infection, and most of tested woman who were excessive drinkers, smoked tobacco also.

Therefore the combination of smoking and drinking may synergistically affect the developing immune system.

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