Pre-conception drinking by dads can damage foetus

Drinking during pregnancy has long been touted as off-limits for mums-to-be but research shows dads who drink pre-conception may jeopardise the health of future offspring.

A study in which male mice were exposed to varying concentrations of alcohol prior to mating showed some of the foetuses they helped conceive suffered abnormal organ development and/or brain development. The male mice in the study not exposed to alcohol sired normal foetuses.

The authors of the study — published in Animal and Cell Systems, the official journal of the Korean Society for Integrative Biology — concluded that alcohol consumption affects genes in sperm which are responsible for normal foetal development.