The Naked Scientist: Pregnancy and alcohol – separating fact from fiction

Relebogile Mabotja hosts The Naked Scientist · 22 June 2026 · 13m

Speaker 1: Two The Naked Scientist Time for the Naked Scientists with Doctor Chris Smith O double Speaker 1: ONEAA three or seven oh two in the WhatsApp line oh seven two, seven oh Speaker 1: two on seven oh two. Speaker 2: As I like to do when we kick off with doctor christis to ask. Speaker 1: Him something just based on the conversation we've been having. A doctor Happy Monday. I Speaker 1: hope you are well. We were chatting earlier around alcohol fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and Speaker 1: I was curious if there would ever come at time where alcohol would be an Speaker 1: option or something could be there that could prevent the damage that alcohol does to Speaker 1: a fetus when a woman is pregnant. I mean, I'm not sure if there was Speaker 1: a time where coffee. Speaker 2: Was just a no no, and then they're like, you can have two cups, that's Speaker 2: actually okay. Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's the other way around with this, To be honest with you, Speaker 3: people used to say, well, a little bit, it's probably okay. But we're getting round Speaker 3: to the point where we realize that with alcohol you need a very very little, Speaker 3: little little bit and even that's probably too much coffee. Very different ballgame, and the Speaker 3: data there is very much it's an association there's no causal relationship between coffee, caffeine Speaker 3: and outcomes in pregnancy. There are associations, but with alcohol we can honestly say the Speaker 3: damage that does is causal. And usually people don't just have little tiny amounts. Usually Speaker 3: the people who have a problem tend to have quite…

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