Internal medicine

Fetus

Adverse effect

Fetal alcohol syndrome

Window of opportunity

Prenatal alcohol exposure

Biology

Psychiatry

Obstetrics

Alcohol

Pregnancy

Fetal alcohol

Computer science

Gestation

Real-time computing

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Prenatal exposure

Genetics

Biochemistry

Medicine

Environmental health

Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology

Alcohol exposure during pregnancy results in impaired growth, stillbirth, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Fetal alcohol deficits are lifelong issues with no current treatment or established diagnostic or therapeutic tools to prevent and/or ameliorate some of these adverse outcomes. Despite the recommendation to abstain, almost half of the women consume alcohol in pregnancy in the United States. This review focuses on the trends in prenatal alcohol exposure, implications for maternal and fetal health, and evidence suggesting that preconception and the prenatal period provide a window of opportunity to intervene, mitigate, and ideally curtail the lifetime effects of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Alcohol Use in Pregnancy