Pregnant women in Australia warned against drinking any alcohol

Health Minister Jillian Skinner has instructed pregnant women to have "zero tolerance" or risk the health of their unborn child. Her blunt warning comes as academics continue to investigate the effects of low-range drinking during pregnancy. A recent British study found the children of mothers who drank moderately - between three to seven glasses of alcohol per week - had better balance at the age of 10. Ms Skinner said the mixed messages about drinking had created a dilemma for many pregnant women. "A zero tolerance of alcohol during pregnancy gives your baby the best possible start in life," she said. However, Dr Delyse Hutchinson from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, said the adverse impacts of low-level drinking was still unclear. Dr Hutchinson is leading the first large-scale Australian study into substance abuse among pregnant women, examining the effects of both alcohol and drugs on 2000 families during the prenatal period on infant development and family functioning. "We know that a fairly large proportion of women do drink during pregnancy - between a third and half do drink during pregnancy but most drink at very low levels," she said. "We know that heavy drinking during pregnancy has significant effects on the broad physical health and development of infants, including lower intellectual functioning. "However, there is not a lot of research on the impact of low levels of drinking and this is one of the aims of our study." NSW Kids and Families, a branch of NSW Health, is leading the push to urge women to abstain from drinking during pregnancy. Its senior clinical adviser for obstetrics, Dr Michael Nicholl, said the latest health data showed 47 per cent of pregnant women consumed alcohol with 20 per cent continuing to drink after learning they were expecting. "Pregnant women should understand that when you drink alcohol, so does your baby," he said. "It's just not worth the risk." The NSW government campaign, which coincides with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Day on Tuesday, is set to reignite the debate over how much is too much among expectant mums. Ms Skinner said: "As Health Minister, I feel sure that if NSW Kids and Families - which harnesses the best data and clinical minds - concludes a zero tolerance approach is best, then it is best." University of Western Sydney Midwifery Professor Hannah Dahlen said there had been an increased incidence in babies being born with Foetal Alcohlol Syndrome, especially among middle-class women. "We've seen some babies born with foetal alcohol syndrome to women who only had one or two drinks in a week," she said. "Babies go through such rapid development the whole way through birth, so it's not about just being careful in the first eight weeks - the brain develops through the whole of the pregnancy. "The message is to not drink at all because we just don't know a safe level of drinking." Article: www.dailytelegraph.com.au

Women who eat fish during pregnancy suffer less stress

Women who do not eat fish during pregnancy are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety at that time, researchers have revealed. They have found a link between the types of diet eaten, particularly whether this includes fish, and anxiety in pregnancy. The researchers suggest that eating fish during pregnancy could help reduce stress levels. Most women experience some stress during pregnancy but excessive anxiety is not good for the mother's long-term health and can result in their baby being born prematurely and/or having a low birth weight. Researchers from Children of the 90s at the University of Bristol and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, looked at the fish intake of more than 9,500 pregnant women They categorised women's diets by the frequency with which different types of foods were eaten and identified five dietary patterns. They are roughly described as: health-conscious, traditional, processed, confectionery and vegetarian. The researchers found that women who never ate seafood had a 53 per cent greater likelihood of having high levels of anxiety at 32 weeks of pregnancy when compared with women who ate seafood regularly. The results suggest that two meals of white fish and one meal of oily fish each week would be an adequate amount of fish to consume. This was the case after taking into account 14 different factors that could affect anxiety, including drinking, smoking and family adversity during pregnancy. When the researchers investigated the dietary patterns, women in the top third of the vegetarian type of diet pattern were 25 per cent more likely to experience anxiety than women in the bottom third. There was also evidence that women in the top third of the health-conscious dietary pattern were 23 per cent less likely to have high levels of anxiety when compared with women in the bottom third. Women in the top third of the traditional diet pattern were 16 per cent less likely to have high levels of anxiety when compared with women in the bottom third. These findings, the researchers suggest, may be due to the lack of fish and meat in a vegetarian type of diet and because a pregnant woman's nutritional requirements increase during pregnancy, due to the demands of the growing foetus, which gets all its nutrients from the mother. Dr Juliana Vaz, the report's senior author, said: "An important message from this research is that in order to have a healthy pregnancy, women need to follow a healthy diet and not something special for pregnancy. "It means a diet containing whole cereals, vegetables, salad, fruit, dairy foods, meat, poultry, pulses and including fish - three portions per week with at least one of oily fish, such as salmon, sardine or tuna. "Sweets and fast foods should be kept to a minimum because they are low in nutrients." Article: 13th July 2013 www.news.ninemsn.com.au

Coffee could pose a risk to pregnant women study reveals

Study reveals that high street coffee shops could pose a risk to pregnant women due to large variations in caffeine content. Analysis of espresso coffees from 20 shops found one with a caffeine content six times higher than another. Researchers from the University of Glasgow said customers were completely unaware of the caffeine levels in cups of coffee.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) advise that pregnant women should restrict their average daily caffeine content to 200mg. But while a cup of coffee from Starbucks was found to have 51mg of caffeine, a Costa coffee had 157mg. The highest amount of caffeine was found in a cup from Glasgow-based Patisserie Francoise, which was serving 322mg in a single drink.

The FSA warn that too much caffeine could result in miscarriage or a baby having a lower birth weight, which can increase the risk of some health conditions in later life.

Alan Crozier, from the research team, said: "Despite the increasing number of coffee shops on the high street and in airports, there appear to be no recent publications on the caffeine contents of the various types of commercially prepared coffees. "This snap-shot of high street espresso coffees suggests the published assumption that a cup of strong coffee contains 50mg of caffeine may be misleading."

Researchers analysed coffees ranging in cup size from 23-70ml. Their findings are published in the latest edition of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Food and Function journal. Dr Crozier added that the size of the coffee was the most important influence to the amount of caffeine.

He said: "The main factor is that some places use a lot more coffee than other outlets to make an espresso, which is fine for some people but pregnant women could unwittingly consume more caffeine than is good for them while thinking they are well within their recommended limit."

Article: 1st December 2011 www.independent.co.uk