Wine when pregnant

[patronsaintofglocks]

Hi everyone.
I'm nearly 15 weeks pregnant with my first. It's my 24th birthday today.

I'm going out with my DP for dinner this evening, would IBU to have a glass of wine with my meal?

Thank you.

[Flowersinyourhair]

To be truthful I avoided as many risks as possible during my pregnancies. This included all the various 'risky' foods, flying, medication- including paracetamol etc excessive exercise, stress etc. I certainly didn't drink alcohol and I've never smoked.
My babies were 100% worth any of those 'sacrifices'- if you can even call them that.

[Lweji]

Lweji - no indeed they are not but that does suggest that somewhere in pregnancy it must be ok to have a glass of wine if they are willing to pump you with heroin whilst baby still inside you.

I agree that one glass of wine is ok.

Just not for the reasons you've given.
Too much alcohol at different times will cause different effects. The same as opioids. So, you can't compare a short exposure at birth time, with exposure while a baby's nervous system is still developing.

[paap1975]

Fetal alcohol syndrome happens to some (not all) children of mothers who are alcoholics. No child ever suffered from it due to their mother having a single drink as a one off during pregnancy. Pregnancy is still treated far too much as a disease than as a natural function of the body. The advice here (Belgium) is everything in moderation (including all sorts of things that are banned in the UK)

[ElisavetaFartsonira]

If you insist on starting a thread like this in a forum full of people who wouldn't understand human physiology if it sat on their face and wiggled OP, best advice would be to disbelieve any claim anyone on here makes unless they can link to some reputable evidence supporting it.

People who normalise any drinking during pregnancy need a verbal slapping.

People who tell women what to do with their bodies need a real one.

[Flowersinyourhair]

"People who tell women what to do with their bodies need a real one"

It's not just their body though is it? I shouldn't imagine people much care about what any woman chooses to do when it's only her involved. When a baby or child is involved people tend to have a different view.

[mudddypudddles]

I think that if you are told that doing, eating or drinking something poses a risk to your baby, then it's silly to go ahead and do it anyway.

It's not the worst thing a pregnant woman could put in their body by any stretch of the imagination, but I just don't see the point in doing it.

[Crunchyside]

I just don't see the point in doing it.

For those of us who do drink a little bit during pregnancy, there isn't a "point" as such, it's just that instead of following all these different rules (many of which are not even official rules, as evidenced by all the posts on her testifying that our doctors, midwives etc have said it's okay to have the odd glass!) about what we shouldn't put into our bodies when pregnant, we relax and carry on with life as usual while just cutting back on excesses, and things which are proven to be dangerous - and as its been said so many times on this thread already, there isn't any evidence that the occasional small glass of wine is dangerous.

[ElisavetaFartsonira]

That doesn't stop it being the woman's body though flowers. You're right that there are people who take a different view, but those people are wrong.

I mean, I wouldn't actually slap someone just for being the sort of stupid cunt I quoted. It's a rhetorical device. But they're still disgusting.

[StarkintheSouth]

Personal opinion is that one small glass is fine. I indulged a few times when pregnant and all was fine. Read 'expecting better' by Emily Oster, it really helped me work out what I was comfortable with. X

[blue2014]

Bet you're glad you asked, hey OP ?

Happy birthday by the way

[Trifleorbust]

Flowersinyourhair:

That's a whole different debate about autonomy versus coercion. You sound like you favour coercion?

[Lweji]

Bet you're glad you asked, hey OP

No deleted posts yet, so, I'd say a pretty tame thread.

[blueberryporridge]

Because the benefit and enjoyment vastly outweighs the risk?

Just coming back to this thread from yesterday and gobsmacked by the above. I hope it was facetious but judging from many of the other comments, I am not so sure.

I am not aware of any study showing that there is a benefit in drinking during pregnancy to a baby and even the evidence of health benefits of drinking for non-pregnant people is debatable. But I am even more taken aback by the concept that someone would be prepared to take even the slightest risk to their baby's health for the sake of the enjoyment of a drink.

Maybe the fact that my DD spent 8 weeks in SCBU (not due to my drinking I hasten to add) and that during that time I watched a constant stream of babie, accompanied by anxious parents, being treated for the problems they had makes me realise just how fragile a baby can be and how important it is do the very best for it while it is growing inside you. This shouldn't include taking any unnecessary risks and however much you fancy a glass or two, drinking alcohol is an unnecessary risk.

And all those of you saying that your midwife or doctor told you to have a drink, well all I can say is that these HCPs are obviously not au fait with the current NHS guidelines, which have been recommended by specialists who have studied the most recent research into the subject.

[Trifleorbust]

But I am even more taken aback by the concept that someone would be prepared to take even the slightest risk to their baby's health for the sake of the enjoyment of a drink.

You could substitute 'drink' in that sentence for any number of things. We cannot expect women to return to the days of confinement. If a risk is tiny, it is completely reasonable for any individual woman to choose to take it. You don't want to and that is fine.

[Dozer]

Driving or being a pedestrian, or working somewhere polluted, is a far bigger risk.

Can't stand holier than thou BS like "my perfect baby was worth the sacrifice", "I was so glad I hadn't done anything wrong when my baby was ill" (implying that mothers whose DC are ill ought to beat ourselves up).

I chose not to drink during pregnancy.

[Strokethefurrywall]

blueberryporridge despite the fact that you fail to be able to do the simplest task of "wrapping your brain around the fact that someone would be prepared to take even the slightest risk to their baby's health for the sake of the enjoyment of a drink", I still found myself far happier taking the advice and guidance of my highly acclaimed and highly qualified Obstetrician.

Pregnant women are still allowed to make decisions for themselves amazingly, and are still perfectly capable of adequately assessing risk for themselves. Much like the fact that I would never have horse ridden when I was pregnant, because it was a risk I wouldn't have taken, but certainly wouldn't and don't judge women that do!

[ElisavetaFartsonira]

I'm always interested to hear more about why people think an occasional small glass is a risk? It isn't a risk just because someone says it is. Given the lack of evidence indicating any risk from this level of consumption, people usually then say they want concrete proof that it isn't.

And yet this standard is never applied to other food and drink during pregnancy: I doubt very much, for example, that any of the people decrying moderate alcohol consumption can provide solid evidence that there was zero risk to everything they consumed in pregnancy. Certainly too much alcohol is risky, but then too much anything is dangerous. Even water.

It's a curious position to take. I always wonder where it comes from. Unlike a pp, I don't reckon it's an SCBU thing, because one of mine was in there (and no I didn't drink or smoke during the pregnancy, before anyone helpfully pipes up). And yet I'm able to see what a flawed perspective it is. No, it must be something else.

[NotCitrus]

Wine gets subjected to judgement; driving in cars doesn't, even though the latter is more risky for sure. A hangover from the Victorian temperance movement, I think. The myth that women shouldn't drink when breastfeeding is similar with even less evidence that there's any reason not to.

My GP and MW both told me to enjoy a small glass of wine with dinner when I said I was planning on going to France (and to avoid buffets, especially rice and salad - GP said the baby would probably survive food poisoning but I'd suffer way more and not be able to take anything for it).

Restaurants in Provence nodded sagely and pulled out the extra good wine seeing as I was only going to have a small one.

[Itsjustaphase2016]

I have found mumsnet very unlike real life OP. In reality I don't think I know ANYONE who abstained from alcohol completely when pregnant! My obstetrician father gave me a brandy when I was 6 months pregnant with dc2. So yeah, yanbu. Pregnancy sucks enough without having a glass of vino on your birthday!

[picklemepopcorn]

I went without for years when I was pregnant, breastfeeding, designated only driver. I'd relax a bit now and have just one occasionally.
But:
"Keep in mind the size and type of wine you are ordering - a 175ml glass of 13% wine = 2.3 units, or more than a double gin and tonic."

Lots of people don't realise.

FASD is an under diagnosed problem, I believe. Not all those affected have the characteristic facial features, depending what stage of pregnancy the alcohol was consumed.

Just be careful.

[ElisavetaFartsonira]

Victorian hangovers might be one explanation I suppose notcitrus.

It's fascinating though, people's inability to distinguish between the level of consumption mentioned in a particular type of research and the amount mentioned by the clearly looking to start a bunfight OP. I mean, the OP is talking about one small drink. No other consumption is mentioned. Yet someone upthread linked to an article about women who drank daily.

In some ways I kind of understand the 'it's just the same as giving a glass to your baby' brigade more. Because although that's obviously not true if you know anything about the human body (and is also one reason why pregnant women are advised to consume things other than breast milk and formula...) it sort of makes a certain logical sense if you don't. It's wrong, but it sounds like it might be right if you don't think about it too much. Extrapolating from higher consumption that one small drink is any kind of risk seems a different level of misunderstanding altogether.

[Cary2012]

My GP told me to drink a small glass of Guinness in the evening when I was pregnant with twins....for the iron. I rarely did, but I did have the occasional small drink - shandy or a drop of red wine in all my pregnancies. Never often, or more than one.

[Flowersinyourhair]

I took iron tablets Cary and ate iron rich foods. Totally unnecessary to drink and I find the justifications a little depressing to be honest.

[Flowersinyourhair]

Blueberry- I had a miscarriage prior to my first child and feel much like you. Why on earth would you do anything at all to jeopardise the health of your baby? It's nonsense to talk about unavoidable risks- let's face it in 2017 driving etc are unavoidable risks. Drinking alcohol is absolutely avoidable.

[splendide]

Driving is absolutely not unavoidable. Why put your baby at that risk?