Is there a Safe Level of Alcohol that can be consumed during Pregnancy without causing Adverse Outcomes to the Child and is this being communicated effectively to Pregnant Women?

Introduction The research question for the dissertation was ��Is there a safe level of alcohol that can be consumed during pregnancy without causing adverse outcomes to the child and is this being communicated effectively to pregnant women?" To answer the question the dissertation was carried out in the form of a literature review and examined research carried out into the effects of differing levels of prenatal alcohol exposure to the foetus. The guidelines created in England and other countries with regard to alcohol use during pregnancy and the published information being provided to women during their pregnancy were also examined. Findings The conclusions provided in all of the research studies were that there is no safe level of alcohol that can be consumed without causing harmful effects to the foetus, both as a baby and in later childhood. When carrying out comparisons it became apparent that some of the recommendations provided by the government and healthcare organisations were conflicting, internationally between countries, nationally and also contradicted the recommendations derived from the research studies. This was also found to be the case with the publicised information. This showed that the evidence from the research studies was not being communicated effectively to pregnant women. Discussion Limitations to this dissertation included the fact that much more research into this area has been carried out in the United States of America than in the United Kingdom or other English speaking countries, making it difficult to find research from England. Also many of the research studies looked at discussed alcohol use in terms of alcoholic drinks, rather than standard units or grams of alcohol as in the guidelines and publicised information. This made it more difficult to make comparisons as researchers may interpret the amount of alcohol in an alcoholic drink differently