Identifying the level of maternal alcohol consumption that places a fetus at risk for FASDs remains both an important clinical and public health issue and a difficult research question (Abel, 2006; Sokol, et al., 2003). While many factors can increase the risk for FASDs (Abel & Hannigan, 1995; Coles et al., 2000; Elliott & Bower, 2004; May et al., 2008), the pattern of alcohol consumption during pregnancy – higher amounts, faster rates and/or greater frequencies of drinking – is the most direct and influential factor. The present results are consistent with the hypothesis that a retrospective assessment of that pattern of drinking may be at least as effective as an antenatal report, and perhaps more so, in identifying risk drinking related to child outcomes, and may also avoid some factors that contribute to denial and maternal under-reporting during pregnancy (Ernhart, et al., 1987; 1988; Morrow-Tlucak, et al., 1989; Jacobson, et al., 2002). In the absence of reliable biomarkers of long-term drinking (Cook, 2003; Kulaga, et al., 2006; Ostrea, et al., 2006), retrospective report may also be the only alternative available
