The Melbourne Age reported Feb. 22 that researchers from Melbourne, Australia's Royal Women's Hospital concluded that the placenta does nothing to prevent alcohol from reaching the fetus. The study, which involved pregnant sheep, found that lambs born to alcohol-exposed mothers showed signs of brain damage and were smaller at birth than those who did not consume alcohol.

Researcher Philip Henschke said that fetuses "simply stopped growing" when alcohol was in their system. He noted that the study found that the damage was done in the last months of pregnancy, when human mothers sometimes "relax a bit about alcohol and medication."

"If we removed both cigarettes and alcohol from the scene, we'd have such a profound effect on the outcome of pregnancy," Henschke said.

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