BBC News, June 19, 2012

Drinking a low or moderate level of alcohol in early pregnancy is not linked to developmental problems in five-years-olds, researchers say.

The Danish research, published in the BJOG journal, suggested one to eight drinks a week was not linked to harm [....]

The Danish researchers produced five papers on drinking in pregnancy.

Over 1,600 pregnant women took part, recruited at their first antenatal visit. Half were first-time mothers, and just under a third smoked during pregnancy [....]

The lead authors of the work [....,] of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark said: "High prenatal exposure to alcohol has consistently been associated with adverse effects on neurodevelopment.  "Areas such as intelligence, attention and executive functions have been found to be particularly vulnerable.

"Our findings show that low to moderate drinking is not associated with adverse effects on the children aged five."

Patrick O'Brien, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and a consultant obstetrician said the research was very well designed [....]