Moderate alcohol use and pregnancy outcome.

Pregnancy outcome has been studied in relation to maternal alcohol consumption in two prospective surveys in public hospitals in Paris and one retrospective survey on a national sample. These studies have not shown any relationship between alcohol use during pregnancy and major congenital malformations. There was an excess of stillbirths, significant only in the first study, and a decrease in placental weight among women drinking more than 40 cl of wine or its equivalent in other alcoholic beverages per day. The national survey also showed a higher pre-term delivery rate. A decrease in birthweight was observed mainly for moderate or heavy beer drinker. These relationships remained after adjusting for confounding factors.