Research also finds that nutritional supplementation during pregnancy may attenuate ethanol’s teratogenic effects. In one relatively small study (Avalos et al. 2011), low to moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy resulted in a twofold increase in small-for-gestational-age infants relative to mothers who abstained. However, the offspring of women who consumed alcohol and reported taking nutritional supplements during pregnancy were no different on these measures than the offspring of abstainers (Avalos et al. 2011). The study reported similar results for preterm births. In a study of pregnant women currently being conducted in the Ukraine, researchers compared the birth outcomes of women given vitamin supplements with those not given supplements. Both groups included women who were consuming alcohol. Although the researchers still are analyzing the results, preliminary reports indicate that the women consuming alcohol and taking micronutrient supplements have a lower rate of babies with FASD than women in the nonsupplement group (Chambers et al. 2013).
