Abstract: Maternal alcoholism during pregnancy
may result in severe prenatal growth deficiency. In this
prospective study, the relationship of moderate maternal
alcohol consumption to infant birth weight is explored.
Subjects were 263 paying members of a health
maintenance organization who delivered single live
children. Their alcohol consumption before pregnancy,
and in early and late pregnancy, was estimated.
In order to control for smoking, which is strongly related
to both infant birth weight and maternal alcohol
use, the sample was selected so that similar proportions
of smokers were represented in both light and
heavier drinkers. Multiple linear regression was employed.
A regression equation was computed for each
of the three periods in which drinking was estimated.