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.

Hmm. I'm unsure on this, i never did it though. Don't midwives advise against it completely? My fear would be that the alcohol would damage the baby, I'm not sure how much of one glass would cross the placenta though. Can you have a non alcoholic glass or a spritzer instead?

not drinking doesn't actually restrict your day to day life whereas not leaving the house obviously would.

We could all wear gas masks, though, no need to stay indoors.

More seriously, while there's no need to drink at all during pregnancy, I don't think it's a case of having never to drink at all. Although I do take the view that the default should be nothing, and then any drink should be small and indeed the exception.

Babies receive toxic products from their mother's bodies, as well as produced by themselves, which are excreted daily.
I really can't see how minute amounts of a toxic substance will have a detectable effect.

Could anyone please give me the specific amount of alcohol that will cause harm to a foetus please? I'd be interested to know the specific, scientifically tested amount that will cause harm.

I never drank in any of my pregnancys because i always thought nine months of my life not drinking was nothing to having a child with fas.
We cant prevent all illnesses or disabilities but this is one of those that we know we can by not drinking alcohol.
Nobody knows if it takes one drink or 100 drinks.
But at the end of the day its your body and your baby and its not anyone elses choice but yours.

Worth reading:

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-much-alcohol-is-safe-for-expecting-mothers/

“We will never, ever, ever know how much is safe for every individual,” says biologist Kathleen K. Sulik of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."
"That said, the literature is reassuring to the many women who socially drank before realizing they were pregnant and to those who, like me, had one celebratory glass."

"We will never, ever, ever know how much is safe for every individual,”

Indeed. And that's all you need to know isn't it.

The basic conclusion of the article is that they could not say with any confidence that mild to moderate drinking did any harm at all.

It is almost impossible to absolutely prove lack of harm so, to all practical intent, mild to moderate drinking has been shown to be safe.

'We will never ever know for sure how much broccoli is safe for any individual either' (or anything else, for that matter).

Yes, but we eat things all the time that contain toxins and could harm our babies too.

I think it's an exaggeration to say that one small drink in 9 months will harm a baby.

Would I be happy drinking even a small glass per week? No.

Wow, i am assuming that the 'why risk it' brigade don't take any journeys by car, foot, train, plane etc or in fact go anywhere off a squishy corner of the sofa unless absolutely necessary and unavoidable. And definitely not for something they might get any enjoyment out of. Are you saying you would put your own enjoyment above the health of your baby?

I would like to see evidence of cases of foetal alcohol syndrome where the mother had one or two glasses of wine throughout the entire pregnancy. I wonder how.many cases there are?

I know it's anecdata but i have come across a few kids with varying degrees of FAS (officially diagnosed and not) as a teacher. Let's just say not one of them had a mother who had just had a couple of drinks in 9 months.

And yet it isn't all people need to know for consumption of other food, or indeed driving. Odd.

Edsheeran,

There is also no single diagnostic criterion for FAS, and many other conditions have similar symptoms. One of the diagnostic criteria is exposure to alcohol in utero, which will severely skew the statistics.

I do personally know some mothers whose drinking was probably far closer to moderate than light. Their kids are still studying at some of the country's top universities. I know anecdote means nothing but, coupled with statistical evidence (see above) does tend to imply that you can safely enjoy the odd drink.

Indeed. And that's all you need to know isn't it.

But every time you get in a car you will never, ever, ever know if that time will be a time that you have an accident - either a big one that could seriously harm or kill the foetus or a small one where the foetus could still receive minor trauma.

Would you not get in the car to go out for a meal (no wine of course ) with your DH because you might have a car accident? After all it's not really a necessary journey is it?

I would (and did) take the precautions I could- wear my seatbelt according to the advice, get dh to drive as the bump grew, drive steadily and carefully etc etc. Just the same as taking the precaution of not drinking whilst pregnant.
I'm curious as to what those who advocate drinking would do if confronted by someone who felt as I did at a party or whatever. Would you try to persuade a pregnant friend to have a drink? Would you tell them to go for it/one won't harm etc etc? Would you consider that to be a BETTER choice than abstaining from alcohol for 9 months?

Quite. It's no good saying driving only becomes an issue if there's an accident. Listeria only becomes an issue if you catch it. The problem is that if you don't have a crystal ball, you don't know.

Now many pregnant women have no choice but to drive or travel at least some times during their pregnancy. However, very few of us make literally only journeys that are entirely unavoidable. That's an actual documented risk you take, with a clear cause and effect, which we can be sure of in a way that we can't with respect to one small glass of alcohol.

I'd never try to force anyone into having a drink, pregnant or not. Nor would I judge someone for having one.

I didn't say force, I said persuade. If you had a friend who categorically told you then wouldn't have that glass of wine you were offering, would you attempt to convince them they'd be ok with it?
I asking this as so vehement are the opinions that it's entirely safe on this thread- I'm wondering whether you'd have the courage to share that view in real life as you are doing on the internet where unknown pregnant women may well be taking your advice.

I would (and did) take the precautions I could- wear my seatbelt according to the advice, get dh to drive as the bump grew, drive steadily and carefully etc etc. Just the same as taking the precaution of not drinking whilst pregnant.

But the biggest risk still comes from being in the car. If you were truly taking 'precautions' akin to not touching alcohol at all in pregnancy, you wouldn't get in a car at all, unless absolutely necessary.

I would (and did) take the precautions I could- wear my seatbelt according to the advice, get dh to drive as the bump grew, drive steadily and carefully etc etc. Just the same as taking the precaution of not drinking whilst pregnant.

But the appropriate comparison flowers would be whether you embarked on any non-necessary journeys (and not just by car). Because any journey is a risk, and while seatbelts etc reduce the risk they do not entirely remove it. So it isn't actually just the same as taking the precaution of not drinking while pregnant.

As such, a person who is suggesting women abstain entirely from alcohol because that's the only way to ensure no risk should also do the same with other unnecessary risks. Particularly since we do know that a single car journey is a risk whereas we don't know that about a single small alcoholic drink.

Otherwise they're a hypocrite, and they only think women need to avoid risky behaviour when it's something they themselves aren't bothered about doing.

I'm curious as to what those who advocate drinking would do if confronted by someone who felt as I did at a party or whatever. Would you try to persuade a pregnant friend to have a drink?

I'm curious as to why you're not addressing this to the people on this thread who've already shown they like trying to tell other women what to do with their bodies, ie the ones telling others off for drinking. They're the only ones who've given any indication that they want to berate other women into using their bodies in the approved way.

Why would anyone persuade someone else to do something? In whose interest is it, to do that?

I had the odd glass of wine in the second and third trimester became I wanted to. I have no interest in persuading anyone else to do anything.

I asking this as so vehement are the opinions that it's entirely safe on this thread- I'm wondering whether you'd have the courage to share that view in real life as you are doing on the internet where unknown pregnant women may well be taking your advice.

This is another problem with your ability to make valid comparisons. You don't seem to have one. There is a distinction between stating a view and trying to persuade someone to comply with it.

The people who are trying to persuade on here are not the ones who have been pointing out that those claiming alcohol in any capacity is risky are bullshitting. It's the ones who are bullshitting about alcohol being risky in any capacity.

Personally I have discussed the topic in real life, both in reference to my own non-drinking during pregnancy and when others have asked for advice/thoughts. I've outlined the scientific position as I understand it, and was happy to do so.

But then I've been lucky enough not to come across anyone as hypocritical or poorly informed as some of the waaah, any alcohol is a risk, it's like giving your baybeee a double vodka, but it's ok for me to take risks I want to take that aren't alcohol don't call me out for my double standards I'm so sad for you brigade on here.

No one has tried to 'persuade' anyone to do anything flowers. The OP asked if it would be ok to have one drink and people are setting out their reasons as to why they think she could if she wants to. People have been invited to give their opinions. If someone doesn't want to drink when pregnant and are fine with that then why would i try and get them to have a drink?

If you saw a pregnant woman having a single glass of wine in a restaurant, would you go over and set out your reasons why you don't think it's a good idea, as you have done on this thread?

To those comparing drinking while pregnat to giving a baby alcohol, the difference is blood volume. The effect of alcohol on the body depends on blood concentration and hencd blood volume. Newborn babies have about 300ml blood, adult women about 13 times more. so drinking one glass of wine gives the fetus the same blood concentration as giving. newborn 1/13 of a glass of wine, not a whole one. I think you can base the decision on the best scientific evidwnce available, which is that very amall volumes of alcohol. like one small glass at a party, probsbly aren't going to have a long term effect on the fetus.

I'm wondering whether you'd have the courage to share that view in real life as you are doing on the internet where unknown pregnant women may well be taking your advice.

'Share that view in real life'?

Well, of course. When I had the odd glass of wine while pregnant, it was in full view of other people.

I mean, obviously - I wasn't necking it alone in a darkened room. That would be weird. It was at social events.

YANBU

I did have one glass most Saturdays nights past 12 weeks.

It doesn't do any harm at this level x

Erm, why would you post this?

I can't help but feel this post was deliberately posted to cause conflict. It is common knowledge what the guidelines re drinking during pregnancy are.

I have fairly strong feelings regarding taking health risks in pregnancy. I wouldn't think the worst of someone having a glass of wine, but there are risks to drinking in pregnancy and what is worrying to me is I read that they don't know exactly what volumes of alcohol causes FAS, but some women can drink quite a lot and not have it, and some women can drink very little and have quite noticeable effects.

I wouldn't bother with it the same way I wouldn't smoke or do drugs, because they are toxic substances and my baby is growing inside me...