And what about all those pregnant Frenchwomen who drink (while also apparently shedding their baby weight with ease and bringing up perfect bébés)? It turns out they aren’t, really. One study in Europe that surveyed pregnant women and new mothers during two months showed that only 11.5 percent of women reported consuming alcohol once they knew they were pregnant. Of these women, most (72 percent) had a single five-ounce glass of wine or less the entire pregnancy .

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We now have new data in the United States telling us that rates of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (F.A.S.D.) are higher than we knew. In 2018, a paper on F.A.S.D. was published in the medical journal JAMA. Researchers trained in identifying the distinctive physical characteristics of F.A.S.D. evaluated over 3,000 children in four communities across the United States.

The findings were staggering. The way we are consuming alcohol in pregnancy is resulting in a conservative estimate of 1.1 to 5 percent of children — up to 1 in 20 — with F.A.S.D. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are more prevalent than autism.

And yet at least 10 percent of pregnant women still drink during pregnancy.

The best analogy for the risk associated with alcohol consumption in pregnancy is driving with your newborn unbuckled in the back seat. Maybe you’ll get into a car accident and maybe you won’t. And if you do, maybe it will be a fender bender or maybe it will be catastrophic.

Driving is also not the only factor at play, in the same way that differences in body chemistry can play a role in who develops F.A.S.D. There is also the ability of your newborn to withstand an impact, the weather, the number of cars and the state of mind of other drivers on the road.