To have a small drink whilst pregnant?

[PayingMyWayYouSay]

I'm just about 20 weeks now. Baby fine. Lovely little boy.

DH and I going to the pub that sells food this evening. Would I be unreasonable to have 1, just 1, WKD with my food?

DH is extremely against it and starts protesting in full when I even mention drinking alcohol

I tried to take a sip of his Fruity Cider today and there was a lot of "Why would you do that?"

He thinks it's harmful and isn't worth a marginal risk.

I know it's my body but it is his baby too so I think he's entitled to express his feelings.

Surely 1. Something unit is okay with food?

It won't be a regular thing, it's just something I fancy.

I wouldn't take the risk, but if he is so dead set against it, he should be giving up alcohol too. If he's going to expect a say into what goes into your mouth during your pregnancy when you're the one who is dealing with all the physical changes, he should be doing his best to share that with you. By also giving up the drinks that he likes.

Expecting better is ok - but she's neither a doc nor a scientist and the way she's interpreted some of the evidence is not how I would. She also hasn't looked at some of the newer data.

Alcohol is not zero risk. It is a teratogen. The risk is small at later time points but it's not non zero.

OP - I found I really loved some of the alcohol free weisbiers- erdinger is lovely. I no longer drink much after pregnancy (just went off it totally) but that stuff is lovely. I prefer it to regular now.

www.evidence.nhs.uk/document?ci=https%3a%2f%2fwww.nct.org.uk%2fsystem%2ffiles%2frelated_documents%2fCastledine+Alcohol+and+pregnancy_1.pdf&returnUrl=Search%3fq%3dalcohol%2bpregnancy&q=alcohol+pregnancy

To those who are saying it isn't worth the risk, did you ever get in a car while pregnant? Live in a city with less-than-perfect air quality? - oh for God's sake. It's about reducing risk as much as you can WHERE POSSIBLE. Obviously it's not possible for most people to avoid cars and air. But alcohol totally unavoidable.

Drinking while bf is different. The concentration of alcohol in the milk is the same as in serum. Then it goes through the stomach again - it's not comparable. By all means drink moderately when bf.

Whether you do or do not is up to you during pregnancy- but make sure it's an informed choice.

Bluntness - it might well be but it's not the same as having a vodka
Vodka is what, 40% ABV? WKD is 4% ABV so similar to a weak lager

Before I miscarried I would have been pretty laid back about this stuff and wouldn't have worried about the odd glass of wine in the third trimester. But having lost a baby and gone through months of "was it because I did X, could I have prevented it by doing Y" I just don't think it's worth it. I'd rather give up booze (and steak, and sushi, and soft cheese) for 9 months than risk going through that horrific cycle of guilt again.

She's not even a bloody doctor, she did a BA in economics

And then got a PhD from Harvard, making her a doctor, and she has gone on to be a professor

I'm not sure if you realise but medical doctors aren't the only ones who can interpret and evaluate scientific studies
You do realise that when papers are peer reviewed and published in the BMA, you don't have a load of GPs sitting around giving their opinions?
It is mostly done by people who aren't medical doctors

I just find it absolutely bizarre that people trust a random economist who went to Harvard over carefully produced public health guidelines.

I can only assume it appeals to the type of person who likes to think they're too clever to accept the same advice as the plebs

I just find it absolutely bizarre that people trust a random economist who went to Harvard over carefully produced public health guidelines. - exactly! But it wouldn't suit their lifestyles now, would it?

Of course it is different, just a similar argument was made recently on a similar thread about drink while Breastfeeding.

I think making an informed choice is key, which is what I have done and is why I am happy to have both a very small drink on the odd occasion in the second half of pregnancy, and to have the odd drink when BF.

For all of you that thinks it's fine, do you feel the same about smoking when pregnant? What about contact sports or roller-coasters?

But the random economist didn't do the research, they are just reporting it.

OK, Namechange2837, I'm sure you never got in a car unless you absolutely had to while you were pregnant. Why would you take the risk, after all? Because it's a much bigger risk than having one drink in the second half of pregnancy.

Logic dictates to me that certain contact sports would not be a great idea, much as logic tells me that the odd small drink is unlikely to do much harm.

Cars have an actual function besides giving you a dopamine hit.

I consider cigarettes much more dangerous than alcohol, even in moderation. But even then I would probably not massively judge a woman who had one cigarette, every few weeks/fortnights.

I think what she says is sound, but if everything goes wrong I don't want to compound the devastation I would feel by wondering if it was the half glass of wine/weak gin in Week 17 or whatever

I think this is actually a good reason to moderate some of the hysteria surrounding this - the risk of making women feel unnecessarily anxious or guilty about decisions that almost certainly had no impact at all. When I had my first miscarriage I convinced myself that it was my fault and had happened because I'd had a few drinks the weekend before I found out I was pregnant. I gave up drinking and then had another two miscarriages. Turns out I shouldn't have tortured myself about those drinks. Even more seriously, I read a newspaper article a little while ago where some experts were worried that the rhetoric around drinking in pregnancy was so harsh that it was making some women with wanted pregnancies consider abortion because they were so concerned they would have done severe harm to their child by drinking before they knew they were pregnant. Trying to prevent women from drinking too much by making them incredibly anxious about drinking tiny amounts of alcohol isn't actually a risk-free approach.

If you can't stop drinking alcohol for the sake of your unborn child for 9 months you have a problem.

Suck it up and stop being selfish.

Your DH is right.

A PhD from Harvard in economics. It's a nice PhD but it doesn't qualify her to assess primary health data any more than my PhD qualifies me to assess economic data.

Very little good work gets published in the BMA journal* but the people who assess it aren't GPs. They aren't hugely qualified either to be honest. Epidemiologists and scientists (biochemists, geneticists, blah blah) do that (and are merciless in their reviews I tell ye.)

Alcohol isn't zero risk. The risk is small, and op is an adult who has bodily autonomy. Her dh should not be lecturing her. Down that road madness lies. The NHS guidelines are actually pretty sensible.

*. I know, meow...

Their bodies, their choices - but when they're pregnant it isn't JUST their bodies is it?!

It's your choice. You weigh up the evidence either way and decide. I'm pregnant and still eat very runny eggs on a daily basis having researched the pros/cons. I've done the same re alcohol consumption and will not be drinking any at all in pregnancy. But at the same time, I don't feel guilty for the few weak g&ts I had at 5 weeks before I knew I was pg.

WKD is grim though.