Dads-To-Be Should Stop Drinking 6 Months Before Conception, Study Finds

(CNN) — Alcohol consumption during pregnancy has long been linked to congenital defects and developmental problems in newborns. Now a new study has found a link between a baby’s congenital heart defects and their prospective parents’ drinking before conception. Compared to non-drinkers, fathers who drank during the three months before conception were 44% more likely to have babies born with congenital heart disease. If the prospective dads were binge drinkers, which was defined as downing five or more drinks per session, there was a 52% higher likelihood their baby would have a congenital heart defect. Previous research has shown that alcohol exposure changes the DNA in developing sperm and changes sperm activity, although the underlying mechanisms are not yet understood. For mothers who drank or binge-drank before conception, there was a 16% higher risk for their babies, compared to not drinking. The study, published Thursday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, was a meta analysis and review of existing studies on the topic, and can only show an association between drinking and birth defects, not a causation. “Binge drinking by would-be parents is a high risk and dangerous behaviour that not only may increase the chance of their baby being born with a heart defect, but also greatly damages their own health,” study author Jiabi Qin, of Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China, said in a statement....
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