Sam admitted she had no idea that alcohol could harm her unborn child (Picture: ITV)

A woman whose 11-year-old son suffers from Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder has confessed she continued drinking through pregnancy as she thought it was doing her baby good.

Sam, who appears in the ITV documentary Exposure: When Pregnant Women Drink – due to air on Tuesday night – revealed that she found it hard to give up drinking when she was expecting her son Stanley – but was convinced her habit would not do him any harm.

‘I used to go and have my scans and then have a couple of pints of Guinness and a brandy,’ she explained on the show.


‘I thought Guinness was good for the baby.’



However Sam admitted that she was never given any advice about drinking while pregnant – and that had she been told that it might affect her unborn child things might have been very different.

Stanley was diagnosed with FASD when he was two (Picture: ITV)

‘I just presumed I’d get drunk and it would pass through,’ she added.

‘I’d never heard of FAS, I wasn’t told. Had I known the facts it might have shocked me enough to try and seek further help, and I think had I asked if I’d like to go to rehab I’d have jumped at the chance.

‘But I couldn’t do it on my own.’

Sam revealed on the programme that Stanley’s condition was not diagnosed until he was two – and that as a result he may never lead a normal life due to suffering frontal lobe brain damage which affects his cognitive and social skills.

Current government guidelines state that women should not drink at all during the first three months of pregnancy, and thereafter limit themselves to one or two units a week if they drink at all.

However the programme presents shocking facts that may well put expectant mothers off completely – with one expert saying that just one unit of alcohol can stop the foetus breathing for up to two hours.

Several of those featured on the show said the advice over alcohol consumption in pregnancy was conflicted, with one adding: ‘The internet tells you all sorts of different advice, I got confused,’

Exposure: When Pregnant Women Drink is on ITV at 9pm on Tuesday night.