Mental Health

A Glass Of Wine A Week During Pregnancy Makes Better Behaved Children

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Jan 02, 2014 05:53 PM EST

Expectant mothers who drink a glass of wine a week during pregnancy have better behaved children.

Lead researcher Janni Niclasen of the University of Copenhagen found that women who consumed 90 units of alcohol have more emotionally stable and better-behaved children than those who abstained. However, Niclasen warned that the latest findings are "not an invitation to pregnant women to drink alcohol," according to the Daily Mail.

"My study shows, among other things, that the children of mothers who drank small quantities of alcohol - 90 units or more - during their pregnancies show significantly better emotional and behavioral outcomes at age seven compared to children of mothers who did not drink at all," Niclasen said in a news release.

"At first sight this makes no sense, since alcohol during pregnancy is not seen as beneficial to child behavior," he added. "But when you look at the lifestyle of the mothers, you find an explanation."

Researchers found that mothers who drank 90 units or more of alcohol were actually the most educated and had the healthiest lifestyle overall.

Niclasen added that it was also important that researchers account for psychological factors like attachment between mother and child.

"This is a problem because we know that attachment is a very significant predictor for child cognitive and mental health," she said. "Therefore it should be taken into account in our statistical analysis."

Researchers noted that the study only examined women who consumed small quantities of alcohol during pregnancy. Therefore, the findings should not apply to those who drank heavily during pregnancy.

The latest study involved 100,000 pregnant Danish women who were interviewed at four separate occasions about their alcohol consumption.

The women were interviewed twice in pregnancy, once when children were six months old and again when children turned seven.

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