According to a new study there is little evidence that women who binge drink while pregnant seriously harm the development of their babies.

Consistent heavy drinking while pregnant has been linked with birth defects but until now, the effect of binge drinking is thought to have been unknown. Scientists Jane Henderson and Ron Gray, from the University of Oxford, and Ulrik Kesmodel, from the University of Aarhus in Denmark, set out to study the phenomenon.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health journal, were based on a comprehensive review of published research on binge drinking among women who were either pregnant or trying to conceive. More than 3,500 articles were considered before being narrowed down to 14 "good quality" pieces of relevant research and the period reviewed spanned 35 years, from 1970 to 2005. Binge drinking was defined as downing five or more alcoholic drinks in one session - the equivalent to 60g of alcohol or 7.5 units.

The results indicated there was "little substantive evidence" that binge drinking caused a range of problems, according to the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. These included miscarriage, still birth and abnormal birthweight or birth defects such as fetal alcohol syndrome.