British women ‘more likely to drink during pregnancy’

British women have been shown to be more likely to drink during pregnancy than their counterparts in other European countries.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health collated data on more than 7,000 women in 11 European countries to study the proportion of women in Europe who continue to drink alcohol when they know they are pregnant.

On average, 16 percent of women across all 11 European countries reported that drinking alcohol during their pregnancy, but this rose as high as 28.5 percent among UK women, making Britain the worst performer out of all the nations included.

The UK came ahead of Russia (26.5 percent) and Switzerland (20.9 percent) at the top of the list, while the lowest proportions were seen in Norway (4.1 percent), Sweden (7.2 percent) and Poland (9.7 percent).

Women who reported alcohol consumption during pregnancy were more likely to be older, more highly educated, in employment, and to have smoked before pregnancy.

Study leader Professor Hedvig Nordeng from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said: "There is no defined safe minimum amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy. We therefore recommend that all pregnant women should adhere to the guidelines for total alcohol abstinence during pregnancy."

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