Pregnant women advised on alcohol

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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) dropped its draft guidance published last autumn which said it was fine for women to drink the equivalent of a small glass of wine daily after the first trimester.

Now, Nice is saying women should avoid alcohol but, if they choose to drink, they should have no more than one or two units once or twice a week.

The new guidance is bound to add to the confusion over how much is safe to drink in pregnancy.

Nice admitted today that there was no fresh evidence to support its stance, which will see its views more closely aligned with those of the Government.

The Department of Health advised in May 2007 that pregnant women and those trying to conceive should cut out drinking altogether.

Women who do choose to drink after the first trimester should have no more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week and should not get drunk, it said.

Nice's new guidance echoes this, and says women should not binge-drink during pregnancy (defined as more than 7.5 units on a single occasion).

However, its draft guidance published in autumn offered different advice, saying there no evidence that a small glass of wine a day caused any harm after the first trimester.

That guidance said: "If you do drink while you are pregnant, it is better to limit yourself to one standard unit of alcohol a day (roughly the equivalent of 125ml - a small glass - of wine, half a pint of beer, cider or lager, or a single measure of spirits)."