Drinking even small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can have a devastating effect on the developing fetus, says new research from Binghamton University, the State University of New York. A team of scientists found that even a small amount of alcohol produced significant amounts of anxiety in children that lasted into adulthood.

Numerous previous studies have shown that alcohol damages developing fetuses, inducing birth defects, and depending on how much alcohol is consumed, can increase the risk of miscarriage, prematurity, stillbirth, or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). This study, however, was the first to use only low levels of alcohol to reach its conclusions.

"There's been a lot of media coverage on whether there's a safe amount of alcohol to drink," said researcher Marvin Diaz. "This study shows that there isn't."

Scientists exposed pregnant rats to ethyl alcohol vapor for a six-hour period on their twelfth day of gestation; this was the only time the rats were exposed to alcohol.

After birth, the offspring underwent a series of anxiety tests. The researchers found that anxiety was most apparent in male rats during their adolescence.

"The most important takeaway from this study is that the effects we studied on the rats only took one day of exposure to produce — just six hours," Diaz said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even advises not drinking at all if you are not on birth control and you think there's even a possibility you could become pregnant.

Although experts have discouraged pregnant women from drinking, a recent report from the CDC found that 1 in 10 pregnant women reported drinking in the previous month, and more than 3 percent admitted to binge drinking during the past 30 days.