One in 100 babies are born in Britain each year brain-damaged with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), ITV documentary Exposure: When Pregnant Women Drink reveals this week - and many mothers may be unwittingly putting their babies at risk because they've been led to believe it's okay to drink one or two units a week.
In fact, some mothers, including Sam whose 11-year-old son Stanley has FASD, believed that some alcoholic drinks, such as Guinness, were even good for the baby.
Sam, whose last name is not revealed, admits she had an addiction to alcohol that made it hard for her to give it up when she was pregnant. But she said she also wasn't warned enough about the dangers to her baby as a result of her drinking habit.
She said: 'I used to go and have my scans and then have a couple of pints of Guinness and a brandy. I thought Guinness was good for the baby.
'I wasn't given any advice. I presumed I could get drunk and it would just leave my system.
'I hadn't heard of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, I wasn't told. Had I known the facts I may have been shocked enough to seek help.'
It was only after Stanley was born that Sam, a single parent, realised she had to tackle her problem with alcohol for the sake of her son.
She's been sober for the past ten years but sadly the damage to Stanley was already done.
She explains: 'The first time I heard about FASD was when Stanley was two, he had reflux and a small head. That's when I realised the damage I had done and how he may never lead a normal life.
'I was told he had frontal lobe brain damage, cognitively he would be behind and his social skills would be poor. His difficulties to communicate can make him angry.'
The Government's current guidelines advise that those who are pregnant, or trying to get pregnant, should avoid alcohol altogether – but then adds, 'If women do choose to drink, to minimise the risk to the baby, we recommend they should not drink more than one to two units once or twice a week and they should not get drunk.'
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has taken a similar view, stating: 'There is no proven safe amount of alcohol that you can drink during pregnancy. It is also often difficult to work out just how much you are drinking, especially if you have a drink at home.
'The only way to be certain that your baby is not harmed by alcohol is not to drink at all during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
What it's doing is it's stopping normal development, it's interfering with the process, so you've got brain cells being killed off, you get brain cells in the wrong place, you've got parts of the brain that just are absent
Dr Raja Mukherjee
'It is recommended that you do not drink alcohol during the first three months of pregnancy.
'Drinking small amounts of alcohol after this time does not appear to be harmful for the unborn baby, but you should not: drink more than one or two units, and then not more than once or twice per week. Binge drink (which for a woman is when she has six units or more of alcohol on any one occasion).'
Meanwhile the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommend women abstain from alcohol completely during the first three months of pregnancy because of the risks of miscarriage.
Then for the remainder of the pregnancy, they recommend drinking no more than one or two units of alcohol once or twice a week.
However in countries including the USA, Canada, France and South Africa, pregnant women are told to avoid alcohol completely for the entire time they are carrying a baby.
Due to such conflicting views, many British expectant mothers admitted on Exposure that they don't know what to think.
Some were given no information on alcohol consumption, while others found the NHS guidelines confusing and contradictory.
One mother-to-be said on the show: My understanding is you shouldn't - but you can drink a little if you want to.'
Another admitted: 'The internet tells you all sort of different things, I got confused.'
Consultant paediatrician Dr Mary Mather, who is interviewed on the documentary, says British women need to be told that there is no safe limit of alcohol to drink when pregnant.
She said: 'Alcohol is a poison, it's a toxin. It's toxic to developing tissue and it's also what doctors call a teratogen. And the best known teratogen is obviously Thalidomide.'
She added on the risk of FASD: 'I think they [pregnant women] probably should be panicked. This is an incurable lifelong disability. I think it's time the professionals started to give pregnant women clear advice about the real risks in pregnancy.'
Prof Peter Hepper of Queen's University, Belfast, has carried out the only UK research on the impact of low levels of alcohol on the foetus.
He found that for mothers-to-be drinking just one unit of alcohol - well within the government guidelines - the foetus stops moving and breathing for up to two hours and that's once the alcohol has already left the mother's body.
Exposure also hears that research was carried out in the US in 2013 that revealed alcohol is more damaging to a foetus in the womb than heroin, cocaine, cannabis or smoking.
One couple who know the problems associated with drinking in pregnancy all too well are Marta and Jamie.
They adopted their son, James, when he was two and discovered he had severe development problems.
Now aged five, he still can't speak and is loud, disruptive and hard to control.
A consultant told them they believe his issues are all thanks to his birth mother drinking when she was pregnant.
Jamie said: 'The damage it has done to him is very shocking.'
Martha added: 'I'm still very angry, if I could speak to the birth mother I would say "why did you do that you your child?" It upsets me we have to pick up the pieces for what she did.'
Another young person suffering from FASD is Jade, aged 17.
She spoke to Exposure about the anger management problems she has as a result of her birth mother drinking when she was in the womb.
She said: 'There are times when I'm really angry - not just angry, off the wall, mental. I will be shouting, swearing, smashing things.
'When I am angry I don't think of anything else, I have to smash things to stop me hurting people.'
Jade's struggle to control her anger is not uncommon in sufferers of FASD.
Exposure found that babies born with FASD will go through life with a range of developmental, social and learning difficulties. A few will have tell-tale facial features which will make it easier to get a diagnosis and access support, but the majority will battle with an invisible disability.
Dr Raja Mukherjee, lead clinician at the only NHS clinic specialising in FASD, tells Exposure that alcohol affects brain development in the foetus at every stage of a pregnancy, resulting in brain cells being killed off, in the wrong place or missing altogether.
'What it's doing is it's stopping normal development, it's interfering with the process, so you've got brain cells being killed off, you get brain cells in the wrong place, you've got parts of the brain that just are absent.'
Prof Sir Al Aynsley-Green adds on the programme that new research shows that some mothers clear alcohol from their bloodstream faster than others and it's these unknown and individual differences that may explain why some babies are affected more than others.
He says: 'I've got great empathy and sympathy for women today in the UK because the advice they are getting is not consistent, it is confusing and they're getting different opinions so it's not surprising that many of them, too many of them are confused, worried and anxious and it's time we clarified the situation.
'In my view there is insufficient, reliable, accurate information that can help women to make these important decisions.'
As the Chief Medical Officer is currently reviewing all guidelines for drinking alcohol – many argue now it is time to bring British advice on alcohol and pregnancy into line with those countries who advocate no alcohol at all.
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