Research

About 8 percent of West Virginia babies are exposed to alcohol shortly before birth

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Just because a pregnant woman is nearing her due date doesn’t mean it’s safe for her to drink alcohol. Alcohol exposure in the third trimester can still cause her baby developmental problems later in life, including difficulty with language, memory and focusing. WVU researchers Candice Hamilton, Amna Umer, Collin John and Christa Lilly were part of an investigation into how often West Virginia babies are exposed to alcohol in the last two to four weeks before their birth. They found that about 8 percent of newborns statewide had markers for prenatal alcohol exposure in their blood.