Alcohol consumption during the pregnancy period has adverse result to the child born. These effects range form growth restrictions, to congenital malformations and many others. The child born of a drunkard mother often exhibits mental and cognitive deficits, behavioral as well as psychological trauma in childhood, and this may persist to the direct adult age (Sullivan, 2008). Studies on effect of alcohol consumption for the pregnant women have focus on the fetal growth and development. Although studies on the relationship between alcohol and stillbirth have been inconsistent, alcohol has a direct influence on the probability of stillbirth.
Study on Missouri linked maternal alcohol consumption to socio-dose-response actors as well as other related post pregnancy complications. Gestational ages computed in weeks and interval between conception and delivery was subsequently the estimation scale for hazard ratios. The researchers compared the data from drinking and nondrinking mothers to assess the differences of the baseline parameters. More emphasis was on education capacity, parity, and prenatal behavior of the various categories of samples (Dasgupta, 2011). The index assessment was on the trimester prenatal behavior compared to those that followed the standards prenatal practices.
After computing the findings, researchers found that children born of drinking and nondrinking mothers did not possess same socio-demographic characteristics. According to the Cox proportional hazards regression, modeling was inappropriate because the generated odds both still births and live births as a denominator factor (Wilson, et al 2008). The conclusion after the long research was that, mothers who took alcohol during pregnancy were more likely to be multifarious and experience stillbirth as compared to nondrinkers. The prevalence of stillbirth to occur was associated with the frequency of the alcohol consumption per woman within a specified period. The highest risk of experiencing stillbirth was among women who consumed the largest quantity.
The study was in order to show the association between the maternal alcohol intake and the idea of stillbirth. This occurrence of 1989 and 1997 was to generate totals on early and late stillbirths due to alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The idea of using survival analysis to evaluate the link between alcohol consumption and incidence of stillbirth was to show the practicality of the theory. The researchers also wanted to establish the actual figures out of their rough estimates (Merrill, 2010). The use of population-based design was to minimize the biases that arise form sample selection. The large sample size was to reduce the likelihood of the type two errors, which occur due to insufficient power.
In conclusion, we report increased risk of stillbirth among mothers who agree to consume alcohol during pregnancy period. The effect is even more adverse for women who consume alcohol and fail to quantify the amount they consume on a weekly basis. Therefore, a slight underreporting had a great impact on the threshold for effect of alcohol on stillbirth (Sullivan, 2008). This seems a plausible interpretation of the research conducted in Missouri. The findings, however, are very beneficial when counseling pregnant mothers as well as women intending to get pregnant on the risk associated with alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
References
Dasgupta, A. (2011). The Science of Drinking: How Alcohol Affects Your Body and Mind. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Merrill, R. (2010). Reproductive Epidemiology: Principles and Methods: Principles and Methods. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Rodriquez, I. (2007). Bayesian Analysis for Cox’s Proportional Hazard Model with Error Effect and Applications to Accelerated Life Testing Data. Sanborn : ProQuest.
Sullivan, L. (2008). Essentials of Biostatistics in Public Health. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Wilson, R. et al (2008). Alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the risk of early stillbirth among singletons. Alcohol, 42(5), 369–374. Web.