Drinking in pregnancy

I didn’t personally drink in my pregnancy. 1) because I was always told it’s best not to and 2) I had a pregnancy loss of twins before falling pregnant with my son and did absolutely everything by the books as the whole pregnancy was an anxious one.

I don’t think I would judge anyone for having the odd glass of wine in their pregnancy, to be honest. I wouldn’t think anything if a friend told me she had a sneaky glass of Prosecco on her birthday or Christmas Day whilst pregnant.

I would probably raise my eyebrows if I knew someone was regularly drinking or having multiple glasses at once if I’m honest.

It was my midwife (23 years ago) who , when I told her I wasn’t drinking at all during the pregnancy, said oh it’s fine to have a few, just don’t go overboard. I ignored her then and would again now.

I poured myself one glass of red wine every week when I was pregnant... like a Friday night chill out ritual with DP - most of the time I didn't end up drinking it!

That's a loaded phrase, implying there's something amiss with the idea of not drinking

How would you classify messaging on heroin? After all, there are people who get away with that.

If someone can't last nine months without alcohol, there's something wrong.

Agree.

I think everyone I knew had an odd drink when they were pregnant. At one time doctors used to recommend that pregnant women should have a drink to avoid premature labour, and it’s been less than 20 years since the NHS advice changed to recommend that women should avoid alcohol during pregnancy. The evidence that an occasional drink is damaging is very weak.

Like PP my DC is mid-20s and I had one or two small glasses of wine on occasion, no ill-effects. I don’t think anyone should feel pressured into drinking during pregnancy though. My mother was told by a GP to carry on smoking during pregnancy in the 70s and that probably did more harm.

So it's treating everyone as the lowest common denominator

Wouldn’t touch a drop during pregnancy if you paid me. It’s just not that important to me.

I had IVF and a nurse said to me after we got a positive test ‘We’re not here to tell you what to do, but don’t do anything that you think you would later blame yourself for if things went wrong’. That was enough for me. So no booze, no caffeine, I followed all the advice to the letter.

My only pregnancy craving was red wine but I never caved! It smelled amazing though. I worked part time behind a bar while pregnant and it was torture!

Agreed my oldest is nearly 19 and the advice was the same
The issue is that one person's occasionsl drinking is another person's moderate drinking ,and people under estimate how much they drink, so it's better to say there is no safe level of drinking.

Read the book ‘expecting better’ a small glass of wine is absolutely fine.

I didn't drink any alcohol at all during both my pregnancies and I would judge someone with a pregnant belly drinking alcohol. Why, just why do you need to?
Ps
I do like a drink

I read the research (the Emily Oster book is great) and made my own decisions. I had a couple of glasses of champagne in my pregnancy at various points and I was very comfortable with my decision. I understand why the guidelines are as they are, for all the reasons people have articulated, but they are not based in firm and robust scientific evidence of the actual harm.

When I was pregnant with my eldest, the guideline was 'moderation' and I had 1 drink on a couple of occasions. When I had my youngest the guideline was zero drinking, so I didn't drink once I found out I was pregnant (did get drunk the week before though 😬).

I don't drink alcohol because it doesn't really agree with me - gives me a bad headache even before the pleasurable effects start, and now I'm on Dmard medication for arthritis its not worth trying. I have some bucks fizz at Christmas and that's it really. If anyone was to pressure me into drinking, they'll get a flat no from me.

This is what I was told - DS1 is 25.

So women my age received guidance that one or two small glasses a week was fine, and I never had more than that.

I don’t think I know anyone whose DC are the same ages as mine who stopped drinking alcohol completely.

I was pregnant during lockdown last time so didn’t see anyone but this time I was shocked at how much pressure was put on me including at a wedding when someone said they didn’t like the white wine on the table so I sniffed their glass and she was like oh go on try it. Why would I even bother given that you are saying it wasn’t nice wine?! It felt like sabotage frankly

I enjoy a wine and did when my baby was about 4 weeks old but jeez it’s not hard to stop for the goodness of your baby!

My DC nearly 30 and, yes, it was acknowledged then that a very small amount was not harmful. I disagree about the blanket ban being easier because some people are unable to understand simple guidance.

I drank nothing at all first trimester, then maybe one or two small glasses of wine per week after that. Needless to say, perfectly healthy baby.

When i was pregnant there were no guidelines an alcohol. I had bleeding during my second pregnancy and needed clearance to fly. On hearing i was going to Dublin the doctor told me a couple of pints a day would be good for my iron level.

I was pregnant in the late 1970's and although that probably sounds prehistoric to most posters here, drinking (as in regularly) when pregnant was very much frowned upon. But nobody was too bothered if you had the odd glass of wine. I guess I probably had about 3 glasses of wine over the course of my pregnancy.

I think life as pregnant woman and mother would be a lot easier if people did what they were happy with during pregnancy and raising their children and spent less time judging others.

Don’t want a sip of wine, don’t have one. Want to combo-feed, crack on. Want to rear face in the car until they are 21, go for it.

You can only control what you do, ignore what other people say, and don’t make comment on what other people choose to do.

What affect did it actually have then?

A small amount is fine I think. I didn’t drink for some time afterwards and the pressure from people was awful. They couldn’t understand I’d made that choice and thought I must be ill. Or pregnant again. I think giving up makes the people around you nervous so they throw it back at you, as if you have a fault - agree there is a still a strong drink culture and heartfelt sympathy to those with a problem as no one would force you to smoke but giving up alcohol seems frowned upon

The alcohol passes over to the baby.
It has an effect however small/miniscule.

For most people this doesn't show up as something they can point to when baby is born.
For those who abuse alcohol the baby has fasd. Which is utterly fucking miserable.

I did drink about 3 glasses of wine in the later stage of pregnancy cos I thought it would have no effect. If I could go back in time I wouldn't touch a drop.

It's your choice but do it in the full knowledge it passes through to the baby.