Latest Sad News

medlineplus4you Twitters the news that a study suggests drinking during pregnancy may increase the chance of a rare form of leukemia in children.

Sigh.

You know, the only reason I was planning to get pregnant was so I could drink wine like a rare wine-dwelling fish, following the popular advice that I'd be "drinking for two now!"

Thanks for ruining everything again, science.

The study shows a 56% increase in the risk for acute myeloid leukemia in children whose mothers drank while pregnant.

The story also notes that while 12% of women in the U.S. report "consuming alcohol" while pregnant, 52% of French women and 60% of Russian women do so. It doesn't say how much alcohol was required to be counted as a 'drinker' in the study, nor whether more alcohol means more risk, nor whether countries with higher rates of maternal alcohol consumption report correspondingly greater numbers of the disease relative to the general population (there are about 700 cases a year in the United States, but it doesn't say how many there are in France and Russia).

As a result, it's hard to really get a firm grip on the absolute danger based on this short report (and I'm too lazy at the moment to track down the actual study), but the general takeaway is, don't drink for two.

Even if you know that kid is totally going to grow up to be a lush...make him or her wait for it!

.