Guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in March 2008 includes recommendations for doctors and midwives on the advice they should give to pregnant women about drinking alcohol. These recommendations are consistent with the advice issued in 2007 by the UK Chief Medical Officers.

The recommendations are that:

• pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant should be advised to avoid drinking alcohol in the first 3 months of pregnancy, because there may be an increased risk of miscarriage
• women should be advised that if they choose to drink alcohol while they are pregnant they should drink no more than 1-2 UK units once or twice a week. There is uncertainty about how much alcohol is safe to drink in pregnancy, but at this low level there is no evidence of any harm to their unborn baby
• women should be advised not get to drunk or binge drink (drinking more than 7.5 UK units of alcohol on a single occasion) while they are pregnant because this can harm their unborn baby

These recommendations confirm the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' (RCOG) view that the safest option for pregnant women is to abstain from consuming alcohol while pregnant. View the full RCOG response to this new guidance.

Here is a quick guide to UK units of alcohol:

• 1 unit alcohol = 10g alcohol
• 1 unit alcohol = 1 pub measure of spirits
• 1 unit alcohol = ½ pint ordinary strength beer/lager
• 1 unit alcohol = 1 glass of red or white wine