Prenatal exposure to ethanol: association between increased gestational length and offspring mortality.

Pregnant Wistar rats were fed a nutritious liquid diet containing 35% ethanol-derived calories through days 6-19 of gestation. Control dams were pair-fed an identical liquid diet except for isocaloric substitution of sucrose for ethanol or ad lib laboratory chow and water. Ethanol exposure had no influence on the number of dams carrying their pregnancy to term but did lengthen the gestation period. The groups did not differ in litter size or weight at birth. However, there were significantly more still births in the litters of the ethanol-treated dams and more of their offspring died during the first 10 days of life. Within the group of dams fed ethanol there were significant associations between the length of gestation and the number of stillbirths and postnatal deaths.