How did you manage to not drink during pregnancy?

[enkelt2]

Just that, really. I've never been pregnant. Out of all the things pregnant women do for their children, the one thing that impresses me the most is that they can manage to not drink! For such a long time!

I'm not an alcoholic but just cannot fathom not being able to get a beer or two every couple of days, whenever I want.

So for people who used to drink regularly before your pregnancy, do you just... go cold turkey out of sheer will power?? Or did pregnancy make you alcohol-adverse?

Genuinely curious.

oh yeah and this. I’ve had three pregnancies - the sickness til 18 ish weeks was so bad, I couldn’t keep anything down. Had to start medication which helped a lot.

🤮🤮🤮

I loved alcohol but I loved my unborn baby more.

I love drinking but had no issue stopping immediately either time. It's not worth the risks

Once I found out I was pregnant I didn't drink for the next 5 months. Once I was 6 months plus I had 2/3 glasses of wine a week. Gave birth to 2 healthy DC. This was over 30 years ago when guidelines were different.

While I was doing this in the UK my BFF was pregnant in France. Over there the advice was also not to drink during pregnancy. But not drinking only applied to spirits. It was perfectly acceptable to drink wine or beer in moderate amounts. So BFF drank as normal - a glass of wine every evening with dinner and maybe a little more at weekends. She thought the UK guidelines were crazy. She had 3 DC to my 2 and all were sturdy, healthy babies and are now healthy adults.

FAS is real and scary but light drinking doesn't cause it.

My priorities shifted - responsibility to my baby became the most important thing, having a drink was waayyy down the list.
I did occasionally want one though.

I found it really really easy if that helps. You just don’t want it- you can’t get tipsy , you know it’s harmful and nothing tastes the same. Your brain kind of protects you from wanting it 😂 that’s how I’d describe it. I found it so easy and actually enjoyed not being able to have it as I didn’t have hangovers or anything !

I'm not a drinker, so it wasn't terribly difficult, but in practice anyway it went like this:

1st trimester: Oh god that sounds rank I'll just have some toast
2nd trimester: My morning sickness always passed around 12 weeks. Then food tasted absolutely delicious, but honestly, alcohol wasn't even on my radar. Food was. Alcohol would have taken away valuable room from curries and ice cream.
3rd trimester: The weeks of acid reflux and being too uncomfortable to eat much. Alcohol didn't seem very compatible with antacids.

I did miss sushi and runny cheese, but it wasn't terribly difficult because there was a deadline and time honestly seemed to move quite quickly.

Oh for sure, it's a balancing act. But their needs are so much more present and urgent early on so you cater away, my husband did too. We had years and years of enjoying ourselves pre kiddo though. We've learned alot! 😅

I had my DC donkeys years ago and at the time a small drink per day was very much approved of.

My kids are fine

Alcohol = easy to stop. unpasteurised blue cheese = OMG ! that was hard!! First thing I had when I got home.

I love alcohol, but went right off it when I was pregnant, both times. Sadly it wore off once I gave birth. I couldn't even stand the smell. And it couldn't have been a reaction to knowing I was pregnant because I was away on a very boozy mates holiday when I went off it the first time. Didn't know I was pregnant 'til after.
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I don’t drink regularly, but I did drink more than normal in the first few weeks of pregnancy. I found it really easy not to drink after I found out I was pregnant though. The nausea and fatigue at the start made even getting out of bed difficult, and I also had very little appetite and heartburn to deal with. Drinking alcohol just wasn’t on my radar at all.

The moment you know your carrying ( assuming baby is wanted I can't speak for other cases) many things in you shift emotionally and knowing that is harmful is more then enough.

Easy tbh. Early on the smell was hideous, but even when that went I knew it could harm them...so I just didn't, I'd never have risked them. Didn't bother me, and I loved wine - me and DH did a sommelier course and all sorts, have always had a (large) wine rack with a selection of very nice bottles.

DH also completely stopped drinking while I was pregnant. Didn't ask him to, he just didn't want to, both in solidarity but also worry he wouldn't be able to drive if I had any issues. We got some non alcoholic drinks to try, made some interesting mocktails, it was fun. Was pregnant over Christmas both times and didn't even factor in.

Drinking dairy?

The ONLY risk is if you drink and co sleep and I don't trust what the American academy of Paediatricians say

You mean milk? That is totally fine only if the kids don't have allergies

If you can't go without alcohol for 72 hours and are genuinely in awe of people not drinking for a few months you should seek help.

I don't have kids, I have maybe a couple of drinks a year.

I feel like not drinking is the easiest part of pregnancy (for non-addicts/dependents) given your organs get rearranged, then your genitals or stomach are ripped open, many people are mentally traumatised, and that's the best you can hope for if you're lucky and your baby is safe and you don't end up with long term health conditions like nerve damage.

Wait for menopause. The brutal hangovers put you clean off.

Well you could drink throughout the pregnancy and end up like someone that I knew, she carried on partying and drinking throughout the pregnancy. Gave birth and her baby was so brain damaged that they died 5 days after birth.

Similar to me. Getting pregnant and staying pregnant consumed me for years. Alcohol was not on my register.

The only struggle I had was when choosing something to drink at the weekly pub quiz because I couldn't bear to drink more than one sugary drink, but drinking water all night is dull. I think alcohol-free options are better now

Lots of places ‘advise against’ breastfeeding after drinking alcohol. But this advice is not based on actual peer reviewed studies of the effects of milk from drinkers on baby. Drinking in pregnancy we know (as in have good evidence) it causes harm. Drinking when breastfeeding - the research shows very very little is passed on to baby. As in, you could drink enough to kill yourself and the amount passed into milk would likely be insignificant to cause harm - the issue is controlling women’s behaviour, and guidelines are about you being safe to take care of child. Imo there need to be proper studies to fully evidence any risks; but I doubt studies showing ‘no harm’ would be widely promoted. Particularly not in the USA which is notoriously a country with a weird culture around temperance.

thanks for clearing that up, I’ll dismiss medical advice in future because your use of capital letters has convinced me of your credentials in this area. I’m not trying to convince you to stop using alcohol, please stop trying to convince me to drink - why would you want to - it’s not good for you in general you know? Lots of side effects for women’s health are pretty well established if you trust mainstream medical research.

For me it was fine, i knew the health of my baby was most important and a few months without alcohol was an easy sacrifice, in fact I ended up far longer not drinking due to going through IVF then complications after birth so i went nearly 18 months. Not eating smoked salmon, camembert and Brie on the other hand was much harder!!