Drinking in pregnancy

It's really not a big deal. Over zealous uk rules. I doubt many other countries are so neurotic about the occasional glass of wine. Its a fairly recent thing in the UK. When I was pregnant with mine it was said that a couple of units a week was fine ( although I personally went tight off alcohol when preh)

But on here you will get loads of pearl clutching neurotics suggesting if unable have one sip then the baby will get foetal alcohol syndrome

YABU. The majority of adults are capable of making an informed decision about what to do with their bodies.

It also perhaps says more about the people you surround yourself with if you felt you were being endlessly asked about having a drink. In all of my pregnancies a simple “‘no” if asked sufficed and was the end of the matter.

When I was pregnant I was torn between having a glass of wine so I asked on here what people thought and almost everyone said they’d had a drink so I went for it and it was fine.
I think it’s a personal choice and you should do what you want but also respect others who make a different choice.

The UK is a nation of alcoholics. People will disagree because they don’t want to admit it.

Zero alcohol intake from me whilst pregnant.

And I'm certainly not teetotal otherwise. Happily drink a bottle of wine on the weekends. Just didn't bother me not having any whilst pregnant.

Like a PP when I was pregnant the advice was different. I had a glass of wine maybe once a week. I was and am still happy with my decisions. My kids are bright and sporty and are now at good universities.

No one should ever pressure anyone to drink. But I do think people can be a bit too judgmental about those who have or have had a glass. That said I am judgmental about smoking…. Mum died at 55 and the smallest whiff of smoke starts me coughing.

I would have found this incredibly boring and annoying.

I feel like this is the kind of thing where people want to drink to make them feel better about their own choice to drink.

You see it not just if you're pregnant but people who are teetotal get it as well.

It's vanishingly unlikely that having a small glass of wine at a wedding or something while pregnant will do any harm whatsoever to your baby. The advice is to completely abstain simply because it's hard to determine a precise limit, and also people tend to exceed limits given to them, so it's easier to tell pregnant women not to drink at all.

Obviously nobody should be pressuring you to drink, but I don't think you should be judging other women for having one drink on a couple of occasions during pregnancy because that amount of alcohol simply will not cause any harm to their baby. When my mum was pregnant with me and my two siblings, she was anaemic and told by doctors to drink a bottle of Guinness every day for the extra iron. Clearly that wouldn't be the advice now and I'm not suggesting it's a good idea! But ultimately, the pregnant women who did take that advice did not produce a generation of babies with a high rate of birth defects.

Setting pregnancy aside - think of it like telling people not to smoke. Obviously, cigarettes are bad for you. They're addictive and cause a multitude of diseases,. However, clearly nobody - literally nobody - gets lung cancer from smoking five cigarettes in a lifetime. That doesn't mean we should give people a 'safe' limit for smoking - but it also doesn't mean that someone who smoked five cigarettes 20 years ago will suffer even the slightest long-term effect from that. Alcohol in pregnancy is a similar principle.

My kids are mid 20s now and the advice when I was pregnant was one or two small glasses once or twice a week.

I believe the guidance has changed because a lot of people aren't able to judge how little this means ... so it's easier to have a blanket ban which everyone understands.

I had one glass of prosecco at a wedding when I was 39 weeks pregnant. I don't feel guilty about it - I made a personal decision. I didn't and don't have a drink problem and regularly go long periods without drinking (pregnancy, trying for babies, diet, weight loss etc)
I don't judge others though. Everyone is entitled to make their own decision about what they do and don't do in pregnant. Some people do have a problem with drink so need support with that.
The NHS line is there is no known safe amount to drink as obviously who is going to do a case study on that!

Try actually reading the information regarding the risks. Heavy drinking is definitely bad, but there is no evidence of occasional glass having any impact. Try reading Emily Oster for some actual data and statistics.

I don't judge myself but I just found it easier not to, same as if I were driving home after an event. I still drink Heineken 0% sometimes, 7 years later!

I think during the whole of my pregnancy I had one glass of babyscham and I was wracked with guilt and worry about it. So it really wasn't worth the angst.

I do think over the years there have been mixed messages about drinking in pregnancy. I think the only safe message is the only safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy is NONE. Because people have such varied views on what is a safe amount of alcohol.

You only have to read MN to know that a really worrying amount of posters regard getting drunk and binge drinking as normal behaviour. How can people who normalise drink in that way judge what is a safe amount during pregnancy?
I'm always reminded of Georgie Best, when he knew alcohol was killing him, thinking it was normal to drink white wine for breakfast because he regarded it as fruit juice

I dont habe a drinking problem so just stopped when I found out, I find it odd when I hear 'i have to drink or come up with some dramatic back story or people will think something is up' is am not that obsessed with what o drink or what other people drink or not, i would be seriously worried if my drinking problem was that bad

They shouldn't have been pressuring you to drink but you shouldn't be judgemental about other women having the odd drink. The NHS guidance is very black and white but the actual research is alot more nuanced. I personally had a small glass of something at events about 3 times during my last pregnancy and obviously the baby was fine.

I think the UK as a whole has a very unhealthy, chronic, endemic issue with alcohol which few people are willing to admit.