Maternal use of alcohol and other drugs during pregnancy and birth abnormalities: further results from a prospective study.

This paper presents an extended analysis of data produced during a prospective study of the possible association between maternal alcohol use during pregnancy and fetal harm. This new analysis examines the possible links between not only maternal alcohol consumption, but also the use of tobacco, prescribed and illicit drugs and birth abnormalities. There was no general association between birth abnormalities and maternal psychoactive drug use and misuse. Even so, women who neither smoked nor consumed alcohol during the first trimester produced offspring with significantly fewer birth abnormalities than did those who drank heavily and smoked cigarettes.