How binge drinking – even if you stop before you’re pregnant – can harm your baby’s life chances

Most expecting parents have heard of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which covers a group of conditions that can occur in a person whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. Problems include an abnormal appearance, short height, low body weight, small head size, poor coordination, low intelligence, and problems with hearing or seeing. Affected babies are also more likely to have behavioural issues at school and in adulthood.

The effects can be carried across the generations, too. Last year, a study from Binghamton University in New York found that when a woman drinks even a small amount of alcohol while she is pregnant, she also increases the chances of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren developing alcoholism.

But what about the dangers of consuming excessive amounts of alcohol before you even fall pregnant? A new study carried out at Rutgers University in New Jersey points to a connection between maternal alcohol abuse before pregnancy and high blood sugar in children as well as an increased risk of diabetes as adults.

Alcohol consumption in Hong Kong is said to be on the rise, particularly since February 2008, when the exemption of duty for wine and drinks with an alcoholic strength of not more than 30 per cent was implemented. According to the Census and Statistics Department, alcohol consumption has increased from 2.57 litres per capita in 2004 to 2.83 litres per capita in 2015.

Binge drinking is also becoming a worrying trend, although it is not as prevalent in Hong Kong as it is in Western countries or even in other Asian countries like Japan and China. For women, binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more alcoholic drinks in about two hours. According to a 2014 survey by the Centre for Health Protection, 6.8 per cent of people in Hong Kong aged 18 to 64 consume five or more glasses or cans of alcoholic drinks, at least once a month. Approximately 3.2 per cent of women aged 18-24 indulged in monthly binge drinking, while in the 25-34 and 35-44 age groups, those figures were 4.2 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively. These figures are significant because they show the prevalence of binge drinking in women of reproductive age.