London - Pregnant women should drink no alcohol at all, doctors will warn this week.
Doctors have criticised “confusing” guidelines which say mothers-to-be can drink at some points of pregnancy but not others.
They will say the advice should be replaced with a single message: Do not drink while pregnant.
The issue will be debated at the British Medical Association annual conference.
Doctors in the union’s Manchester and Salford division, who proposed the motion, want the Government to issue “consistent, unequivocal advice to women to avoid alcohol during pregnancy”.
Criticising “confusing” existing advice, they said: “Since there is no known safe limit of prenatal alcohol exposure, the only safe drinking message is to entirely abstain from alcohol during pregnancy.”
It comes as Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Government’s chief medical officer, carries out a review of the guidance for pregnant women.
Various official bodies give different advice on drinking during pregnancy.
The Department for Health warns that all pregnant women should avoid alcohol but adds that if women do drink, they should “stick to one or two units once or twice a week”.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says that women should abstain from all alcohol in the first three months of pregnancy.
After that time, NICE says there is no evidence that drinking fewer than three units twice a week will do any harm.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists changed its guidance in February.
Previously it had said the occasional glass of wine was acceptable. Now their guidelines advise women to abstain from all drinking while trying to conceive and during the first trimester, and then to limit drinking to a couple of drinks no more than twice a week.
Professor Sir Al Aynsley Green, president of the BMA and a former children’s commissioner, called for a simplified set of guidelines and more explicit warnings on bottles and cans clearly warning women that alcohol could damage their unborn child.
“It has to be concluded that there is no ‘safe’ limit for alcohol consumption during pregnancy,” he added.
But not all agree that tougher guidance is required. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service says the risks of women harming their babies by drinking while pregnant are exaggerated.
Clare Murphy, BPAS director of external affairs, told the Sunday Times: “If the guidance needs amending in any way, it is to reassure women who have had an episode of binge drinking before they found out that they were pregnant that they are extremely unlikely to have caused their baby harm.
“These women are being scared witless by current alcohol messaging.” And Pat O’Brien, spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, agreed that consistent advice were important but added that most of his patients find the current guidelines perfectly understandable.
Every year in the UK more than 6 000 babies are born with some form of damage caused by their mother’s drinking.
Daily Mail