Scientists from the University of Madrid in Spain have recently pointed out that, excluding genetic factors, alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the main cause of intellectual disability in fetuses, and abstinence from alcohol is the only way to prevent mental retardation.
Scientists believe that women are well aware of the dangers of smoking during pregnancy to the fetus, but they are not fully aware that the harm of drinking alcohol during pregnancy is even greater than smoking. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can be described as "a great tragedy." According to statistics from the American medical community, 1 in 500 newborns suffers from intellectual disability due to their mother's alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
Therefore, scientists at the University of Madrid not only advise pregnant women to abstain from alcohol, but also require doctors not to promote the benefits of drinking small amounts of alcohol to pregnant women. Some gynecologists once believed that drinking small amounts of alcohol is not only harmless but also beneficial. The mistake of these gynecologists is that they confused the benefits of drinking small amounts of alcohol, especially red wine, for cardiovascular health with the effects of a pregnant woman's alcohol consumption on fetal development. "The mother is an incubator," no matter how much she drinks, it will lower the fetus's IQ. Therefore, pregnant women should not smoke, not drink alcohol, and take vitamin B9 daily.
Scientists emphasize that in order to maintain the health of the fetus, pregnant women should not drink alcohol from the moment they stop using contraceptive measures, because many pregnant women do not realize that they are pregnant until seven or eight weeks later. All organs of the fetus are formed within 8 weeks of pregnancy, and mental retardation and congenital external malformations are most likely to occur during this period.