During Pregnancy Cocaine is one of the drugs most dangerous to unborn babies. Over the past ten years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of pregnant women who use cocaine and, consequently, an alarming rise in the number of babies born affected by the drug. You may not think having a few drinks a week makes you a problem drinker, but those cocktails could be trouble if you re a woman trying to get pregnant. If you drink alcohol, it can hurt your baby's growth. Your baby may have physical and behavioral problems that can last for the rest of his or her life.
Children born with the most serious problems caused by alcohol have fetal alcohol syndrome.
Some habits may harm your baby. If you drink alcohol, smoke or use other drugs, your baby could be born with birth defects or other health problems that will last a lifetime. A baby born with FAS may be seriously handicapped and require a lifetime of special care. In the last two decades more than 5,000 articles have been published on the effects of alcohol during pregnancy. One might assume we'd now have some consensus about the dangers of occasional light drinking during pregnancy.