Alcohol consumption before pregnancy also affects child

Researchers from the Dutch Erasmus medical centre discovered that drinking alcohol in the months before the pregnancy can alter the shape of the baby's face. If a mother drinks one glass of alcohol in the week before she gets pregnant, her baby is likelier to have a turned-up nose tip, a shortened nose, a turned-out chin, or turned-in lower eyelids, Dutch News reports. The more alcohol a woman consumes, the more significant these changes can be, the study reads. A changed face may indicate underlying development issues.

The researchers used Artificial Intelligence to analyse images of the faces of children between 9 and 13 years old. Even though they knew that alcohol consumption has a negative influence on pregnancies, they were surprised that only one glass of wine in the week before conception could already change the baby's development.

Therefore, the researchers recommend future mothers stop drinking alcohol already three months before conception.