White Middle Class Women Drink during Pregnancy

CHICAGO (CBS) ―

This is a baby picture of Kristy Botka. Today, she is 26 years old but has the IQ of an infant because her mother drank while she was carrying her.

New research shows one in five women drink during pregnancy, and the rate is even higher among middle-class white women. Yet research that shows even one drink can harm an unborn baby at any stage in pregnancy.

CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is the only preventable cause of brain damage to an unborn baby. Despite that, each year in this country more than 40,000 babies are born impaired because when their moms drank, they were forced to drink, too.

Vivian Botka's adoptive daughter reacts to being removed from the car. Kristy Botka is 26 years old but has the IQ of a baby. And what's most heartbreaking for her mom is it didn't have to be this way.

"Sometimes I wonder what she would have grown up to be," Vivian said. "Would she be a doctor, a lawyer, a nurse?"

But Kristy never had a chance.

"Kristy is somebody who should have had a normal life," said Ajeet Charate of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. "She's a very, loving, caring person. But she did not have the opportunity."

She didn't have the opportunity because her mother drank during her pregnancy.

"Her words were, 'I didn't know. I would not have ever harmed a child,'" Vivian said.

That was more than a quarter-century ago, when information about the effects of alcohol on pregnancy was scant. Now, though, what's most concerning for researchers is that a large percentage of women are still drinking.

"We found that middle class Caucasian women have the highest rates of alcohol use in pregnancy," Dr. Ira Chasnoff, president of Children's Research Triangle, said.

While a quarter of those women drink during pregnancy, the eight-year study showed unacceptably high rates across the country.

"The rate of alcohol use during pregnancy is as high as 20 percent to 35 percent in some populations," Chasnoff said.

And even one drink at the beginning of pregnancy can permanently change the brain. Chasnoff says no amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy.

"It's like playing roulette," he said. "You just don't know when the right combination of factors are going to come together to affect that baby for his entire life."

"Alcohol exposure during pregnancy is the leading cause of mental retardation in the United States. So why take that chance?" Chasnoff added.

Now it does help dramatically when a mother stops drinking after she learns she's pregnant. But the bottom line is the experts say if you're having unprotected sex, you should never drink.