What are the Effects of Fasting on Pregnancy?
by Barbara Lock, MDAugust 23, 2009
Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for observant Muslims, began on Saturday. According to islamonline, pregnant women are exempt from fasting, although up to 90% of muslim pregnant women do fast. While we would never recommend that pregnant women fast, there is evidence to suggest that it may not be all that harmful to the growing fetus; pregnant women who fasted from sun-up to sundown during Ramadan had children who were just as smart and just as heavy at birth as pregnant women who did not fast during Ramadan according to two case-control studies.
Case-control studies are used to study problems for which randomized controlled trials are not possible; they are frequently used to study questions of harm. Who would ever randomly assign half of a group of pregnant women to an intervention such as fasting all day long, while the other half got to eat whatever they wanted? What pregnant woman would agree to participating in such a study? None that we know of. In these cases, the case-control looked back to see whether the cases (pregnant women who fasted) turned out any different (intelligence of child, birth weight) compared to the controls (pregnant women who did not fast).
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