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.

But it's not just another person, it's your child. It's so, so different when it's your own child.

I’m not being funny but are you sure you don’t have a problem?

Unpasteurised cheese and cured meat were much harder for me, as well as limiting my intake of caffeinated tea. Gave up alcohol with no trouble and have never drunk it since. Our society has a huge problem with alcohol. I've seen too many people's lives ruined by addiction.

I had four IVF miscarriages.

By the time I was pregnant with my miracle I had long since banned scented candles, plastic Tupperware, caffeine (no tea, coffee, coke or Dr Pepper, and only drinking Swiss-Water decaf as it had none of the bad chemicals of the normal decaf), non-organic foods, artificial scents, most cleaning products, the lot. I was rattling with supplements and almost dead with anxiety (that I was managing with fertility massage, acupuncture and sleep podcasts).

When I say giving up alcohol was so insignificant it was barely even on my register, I'm serious. Staying pregnant was the most important thing in my life.

New drank a drop and never missed it

I’d probably say if you can’t imagine not drinking alcohol for 9 months then you probably have more of a problem with alcohol than you realise. It’s really not a big deal to most people.

I still eat deli meat. Not loads. Its a small risk

It was easy . When you know you are pregnant, nothing else matters except that tiny baby inside you . At least it was for me .

I'm currently pregnant and I've found I naturally just don't want to drink. I feel a strange connection more with my body than baby atm -even though I'm 8 months and I've just gone off things I know wouldn't be good for the little one.

I know I could probably have the occasional small red wine socially but I've found the 0% beers have really covered any need I might have had anyway

O wait, are you supposed to limit caffeine intake as well??

Just not an option. Your hormones do the work, the guilt would be unfathomable. It's just off the table. A fair amount of pressure from people around you also - everyone knows it's dangerous so partner/family etc are unlikely to turn a blind eye.

Alcohol was easy for me, I can’t have it so it might as well not exist. Caffeine I find much harder because you can have some but not too much and I have had one too many coffees on numerous occasions!

2 cups is fine. Sometimes I have 3

I found giving up pate and blue steaks harder than giving up drinking. That first glass of red wine after she was born did taste pretty special though.

I was sick for the first half of my pregnancy and the thought of wine turned my stomach. For the second half of my pregnancy I had gestational diabetes so a glass of wine would have completely messed up my blood sugar.

I did crave beer a lot. Driving past the pub, I would crave beer. DH watching football I would crave beer. Seeing an advert for a burger and I would crave beer. But I don’t like the taste of beer so that was odd. I had a few sips of alcoholic beer and non-alcoholic beer but still didn’t like the taste. It didn’t make the craving go away though. DH switched to non-alcoholic beers during my pregnancy when it became apparent that I had this weird craving because I would crave beer most days, even though I knew I didn’t like the taste but I would need a sip to remind myself it tasted awful.

It's not as hard as it seems. Along the the nausea, tiredness and everything else, a drink doesn't seem so appealing. If you think you would struggle, you might want to reflect on your relationship with alcohol.

I was a big drinker pre - kids.

Cold turkey, as that's what's best for my unborn child.

I absolutely love a drink and when I first found out I was pregnant, a lot of people said how is the not drinking going!

It was pretty easy, part of pregnancy I couldn't have stomached it anyway and then the rest of the time, I knew I was growing my child and it would be awful for them!

It was easy as I knew I didn’t want to be the potential cause of lifelong suffering and harm to another person’s life

It feels completely natural to do what you can to protect a wanted pregnancy, a little foetus who is completely vulnerable and reliant on you for their survival and well-being. Even if you don't feel you 'love' the baby yet - which is quite normal - the drive to protect the young and vulnerable is very strong in most humans, and multiply that by a thousand for your own offspring.

I have no doubt that if someone handed you a baby or a baby animal and there was nobody else to pass the responsibility onto, you'd feel a strong protective instinct too.

Just as a thought experiment, imagine a tiny baby in danger or being hurt. Don't you feel sick at the thought?

I switched to cake 😃

My first symptom was just not wanting to drink

I'm not bothered by not drinking at all, so didn't bother me.

Didn't even occur to me as an issue tbh. But I routinely go long spells without drinking, pregnant or not.

The most depressing question that I've ever seen asked here, honestly..alcohol isn't everything

I barely felt like drinking alcohol at all during my first pregnancy. I had a glass of champagne on my 30th birthday, maybe a glass of wine at other times, but I'm not a big drinker and don't like being drunk so had no problem stopping at one.

If you feel that need to have a drink in your hand at a party/pub, I found rock shandies very good - half soda water, half lemonade, a few drops of agostura bitters (which I think is alcoholic but it's such a tiny amount it doesn't matter)