Ibadan Journal of the Social Sciences
Volume 13, No. 1, 2015
DOI: 10.36108/ijss/5102.31.0170
Alcohol During Pregnancy and Lactation: Bridging Discordant and Equidistant Views on Maternal and Child Outcomes
Iboro F.A. Ottu 1 and Iniobong Iboro Ottu2
1Department of Psychology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Uyo
2Deportment of Financial Accounting. Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria,’
Abstract
For a long time. the importance of alcohol in the health programmes of individuals have variously been presented and debated. While some studies attribute light to moderate alcohol intake to reduction in cardiovascular mortality. others suggest lowered risk jar diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease among others. However, the number of studies reporting adverse alcohol effects among people, especially women, far out-numbers ‘hose reporting perceived benefits for alcohol use, This paper took a meta-analytic approach to examine the hazards of alcohol intake among pregnant and lactating mothers as reported in many studies. From the works reviewed, alcohol produces a variety of hazards, both direct and indirect not only to the drinking mothers but mostly to their innocent and unborn children. Apart from irreversible situations such as liver cirrhosis which may afflict drinking mothers, children suffer uncountable physical, mental, behavioural and psychological distortions classified under the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). These disorders affect children’s developmental, cognitive and social abilities. It is the concern. of this paper that the lack of consistent agreement by several researches on the consequence of drinking by mothers is unhelpful, mostly so, when the definition of light/moderate drinking” is not universally applicable and the situation is therefore compounded by individual differences in alcohol tolerance levels. The project concludes that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers have a choice to abstain from alcohol to spare the society of a sullen and malfunctioning generation.
Keywords: Alcohol, pregnancy, lactation, maternal outcomes, child outcomes