Dr. Harriet Hall on alcohol consumption and pregnancy. Surprising.

Conclusion: The scientific evidence has not identified a threshold below which alcohol consumption during pregnancy is definitely safe, but neither has it shown any convincing evidence of harm at low levels of intake, and it has not ruled out the possibility that low levels might provide a small benefit.

In the absence of better data, we are left to cope with uncertainty. Individuals will have to make decisions based on their philosophy of risk tolerance and their own personal non-scientific reasons. For me, the unconfirmed possibility of a low level of risk was not enough to outweigh the enjoyment of an occasional glass of wine during my pregnancies.

An excellent post by Harriet Hall over at Science Based Medicine. It certainly blew some of my mistaken notions about alcohol and pregnancy out of the water. As always, "the dose makes the poison".