>>"Moderate" drinking is NOT beneficial to the unborn child, and never will be!
Exclamation marks do not constitute science.
>>What we know about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Effects, Alcohol Related Neurological Defects, etc. is that it is a spectrum disorder. Some children are very seriously affected, while others are more mildly so.
FAS and the like occur only among the extreme skid-row drinkers, who are often also crack users.
>> It is quite possible that some kids diagnosed with simple learning disabilities, ADHD, etc., are just on the lower end of the spectrum and miss being diagnosed as having sustained damage in the womb.
It is also possible that a lot of other things are true, just because the idea can be posited. That doesn't make them true. Science needs EVIDENCE.
>>I would never, ever tell a woman that drinking alcohol in moderate amounts is safe.
Then don't. You probably aren't a doctor, so why would you be giving such advice?
>> Besides, do you realize that a serving of a glass of wine is considered something like 6 oz, but the woman who thinks she can have a glass of wine a night might be drinking three times that amount? (Ever notice how so many wine glasses are huge these days?)
You think women are incapable for telling the difference between 1/4 bottle and a 3/4 bottle? Such women might also have real trouble with the more complex aspects of parenting, I would imagine.
Don't be a nanny when the evidence doesn't support you.
From a quickie google search:
http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol-info/FAS/FAS.html ....
The guidelines of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommend that "women should be careful about alcohol consumption in pregnancy and limit this to no more than one standard drink per day." 9 These conclusions appear consistent with the research findings of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a major science body in the U.S. 10
The American College of Obstreticians and Gynecologists concludes that "there is no evidence that an occasional drink is harmful. Women who drink heavily throughout pregnancy may have smaller babies with physical and mental handicaps, but women who drink moderately may have babies with no more problems than those women who drink rarely or not at all."11
This group of medical specialists points out that "It's hard to determine the amount and timing of alcohol consumption that puts the fetus at risk. One study shows that women who drank only occasionally and moderately (described in this particular study as between 1 and 45 drinks spaced out over a month) had babies with no more problems than those women who drank rarely or not at all. There were no differences either in size or number of babies' handicaps between the women who drank moderately and those who abstained or drank likely."12
The Harvard Women's Health Watch advises pregnant women that "having more than one alcoholic drink per day puts the fetus at risk for various defects and disabilities." 13 Thus, it suggests that expectant women should limit themselves to one drink per day. The health publication emphasizes that one drink is 12 ounces of beer, five ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of spirits or liquor.
....
footnotes to studies at the site.
Here's a point of observation from a former bartender: most of the women I was aquainted at the places I worked obviously consumes alcohol. Naturally, this sometimes led to the usual consequenses. What is never pointed out is that nearly all teh drinking women I knew did NOT know they were pregnant until sometime after missing their first period and then having the pregnancy test come back positive. They continued drinking until they knew they were pregnant. The incidence of miscarriage or abnormalities was no higher than in the tee-totaling population, which includes me, since I didn't drink during any of my pregnancies. In other words, none of the women I knew lost one or had one with abnormalities attributed to alcohol consumption.
*Note: these woman were the usual girl's night out, weekend-type drinkers.