Home > 'Worrying' alcohol use in pregnancies.

Pregnant Irish and British women drink more heavily than women in other EU states, an alcohol and pregnancy conference at the European Parliament in Brussels heard yesterday.

Dr Siobhán Barry, visiting consultant psychiatrist at the Coombe hospital, told the conference there was “a marked difference” between expectant Irish and UK mothers and the rest of the EU and non-EU when it came to reported alcohol consumption of more than six units per week.

She said research conducted at the Coombe found that of 43,818 pregnant Irish women surveyed between July 1999 and March 2005, 7.5 per cent said they drank six to nine units per week. This compared with 6.9 per cent of UK mothers and 2.9 per cent of pregnant women in the rest of the EU...