Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

WIBU to have one small beer at 5 weeks pregnant?

398 replies

BlackberryQ · 26/08/2017 16:36

It's a lovely wedding celebration outside on a hot day. How much harm could it do?

I'm on the fence and you can talk me out of it if it's really a bad idea!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
CoteDAzur · 28/08/2017 11:02

"a binge could be defined as no more than two standard drinks"

Good. So you agree that OP is fine to drink 1 small beer once in a while during pregnancy, especially at 5 weeks when there is no conceivable way that alcohol or its metabolites can be transmitted from her blood to the embryo.

baddyface · 28/08/2017 11:04

I have never enjoyed alcohol, particularly lager. But when I was pregnant with my second I craved lager so much!

I ended up stocking up on alcohol free lager but it never quite hit the spot.

RadioGaGoo · 28/08/2017 11:12

Spare change. You are rather cringe worthy yourself.

QueSera · 28/08/2017 11:21

Why would you have an opinion on what any other woman chooses to do?

Because that other woman's choice affects an innocent baby who has no choice in the matter. Pretty obvious.

QueSera · 28/08/2017 11:33

Also, the woman (op) asked for our opinions

grandOlejukeofYork · 28/08/2017 11:35

Because that other woman's choice affects an innocent baby who has no choice in the matter. Pretty obvious

It's her foetus. It's not yours.

Elendon · 28/08/2017 11:47

The placenta takes over at around 12 weeks with a 'test run' about 8 weeks. Up until then the pregnancy is supported by the corpus luteum.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_luteum

So have that one small beer. It makes not a pin worth of difference to the developing embryo.

Alpanini · 28/08/2017 11:57

What's the point if you can't get hammered? Just get a nice cold drink and have a few sips of someone else's if you fancy a taste. Not worth the worrying afterwards. I'm 24 weeks and mentally noting down everything I'm not drinking, so I can catch up once I'm not pregnant. Deferred gratification.

expatinscotland · 28/08/2017 12:36

'What's the point if you can't get hammered? '

Hmm
CecilyP · 28/08/2017 12:42

So you are planning to get hammered once you have responsibility for a newborn, Alpanini? Surely far more worrying than anyone drinking while pregnant.

NannyRed · 28/08/2017 12:45

I didn't drink any alcohol whilst I was pregnant. A lime and soda is equally refreshing. I'm sorry to say parenting involves some sacrifices, your life changes and it starts at pregnancy.

CecilyP · 28/08/2017 12:54

Surely, only if you choose it too, NannyRed. You obviously chose for it to do so; others make different choices which have nothing to do with you.

FlaviaAlbia · 28/08/2017 13:07

There's a happy medium between being a martyr and getting drunk at every opportunity Grin

ethelfleda · 28/08/2017 13:49

The wedding was a couple of days ago....
OP was tucked up with a cuppa by 10pm!

RebornSlippy · 28/08/2017 13:53

@sparechange. Oh dear, your post hasn’t had the desired affect I’m afraid. Assuming you didn’t mean to amuse me? FYI, my mirth kicked in at the “big word” bit, tapered off in the middle and kicked back in with gusto at the word “legacy” Grin

The moment you chose to react angrily and address me with personal and unsubstantiated accusations is the moment you lost my give-a-fuck-what-you-thinkedness. You know the precise sum of zero about me, my knowledge or my comprehension. How’s that for mathematical skills?

Please, follow your own advice and disregard everything I say. Although considering you are of the belief I know so little, it’s perplexing as to why you’re even bothered.

RebornSlippy · 28/08/2017 14:03

@grandOlejuke: “That's more controlling their choices than being interested in them, don't you think?”

No, I don’t. Controlling choice is a contradiction in terms, don’t you think? My aim has never been to control anyone’s anything. If that is the way I’ve come across, I’m genuinely mortified. I’m a firm believer in women’s right to autonomy in their maternity care. I really mean that. I think I’ve said from the very beginning of this, every one of us has (or should have) the right to choose for ourselves and our babies. I would just hope it’s fully informed choice.

We have continually butted heads over this information and the current available evidence. And I should say that I reread what you wrote yesterday and yes, absolutely, there is no standalone piece of research, which categorically identifies a safe level of alcohol in pregnancy. It was facetious of me to even throw that out there. (Yes @sparechange, I did say facetious. All my own work. How d’ya like dem lemons?)

There is also available and current research which finds that alcohol in pregnancy is harmful to the fetus at low level amounts. You say you have issues around the quality of this research. Fair enough. It is up to the reader to evaluate and decide. And this is the part where my evaluation skills come into the line of fire, we’ve danced this dance before, but I’ll take the hit. I’m confident enough in my own abilities to say that there is risk associated with drinking alcohol in pregnancy. I’m a risk avoidant person by nature, particularly when said risk can be easily avoided. Completely avoiding risk equates to safe in my mind. I do my upmost to be a safe practitioner every single day, I won’t apologise for that. And yes, yes, yes there are countless other risks in pregnancy, I am aware. However, the topic in hand is alcohol specifically.

I also have to correct you when you accused me of being disingenuous when I said I was interested in the ‘why’ because I am. I’m very interested in that part actually.

RebornSlippy · 28/08/2017 14:08

Ha! I meant to say 'how d'ya like dem apples'. Funny how a bitter fruit slipped in there. Freudian. Definitely Freudian.

Wasabipeas · 28/08/2017 16:20

Reborn, you sound completely unhinged Confused

grandOlejukeofYork · 28/08/2017 16:21

Controlling choice is a contradiction in terms, don’t you think?

Not in the slightest. Are you adding English the list of things you don't seem to understand very well?

PencilsInSpace · 28/08/2017 16:39

nolongersurprised - Zebra fish? 'Badness'? Really?

Seeing as you earlier dragged thalidomide into this discussion you should be aware of one of the big lessons learned from that dreadful tragedy: the results of animal studies cannot be reliably applied to human beings.

I'm not sure why the radiation analogy is relevant

That's because you're being obtuse Smile

If there is no safe level of alcohol exposure in pregnancy, and there is no safe level of radiation exposure in pregnancy, why is the precautionary principle uncritically applied when it comes to alcohol but not to radiation? Why is it ok to tell women not to drink at all in pregnancy, but not ok to tell women not to fly at all in pregnancy? Better safe than sorry, surely?

As has already been pointed out several times, pretty much nothing at all can be proven 'safe'. There will always be some uncertainty. The choice of where to apply the precautionary principle and where to have a more nuanced and balanced assessment of risk is largely political. It's one way in which this principle can be abused. It occurs to me that radiation is not as much fun as alcohol. Neither are household cleaning products or emptying the cat tray.

Another way of abusing the precautionary principle is failure to examine the risks on both sides - in this case, the risks of telling women that there is no evidence of harm from low alcohol consumption (and obviously clarifying what we mean by 'low'), versus the risks of telling women that any level of drinking at all might be harmful, we just don't know!

You and RebornSlippy have done a great job of pointing out all the slight, potential, unknown risks of even low levels of alcohol consumption but you haven't acknowledged at all the risks on the other side of the equation, even though they have been mentioned several times now.

We know that many many women drink in early pregnancy, sometimes substantial amounts, before they realise they are pregnant and a lot of women get extremely anxious about this, and the harm they might have done, largely because they are bombarded with the sort of stuff you are posting. We also know that anxiety itself can have negative impacts on foetal development.

Alarmingly, BPAS have become 'greatly concerned' at the growing number of women who approach them seeking a termination because of unfounded fears they have harmed their baby through drinking in early pregnancy.

What would your advice be to those women?

Another big risk is that if people can clearly see the risks are being massively overblown, they will be less likely to believe any of the health advice they are given. Public health bodies will gradually cease to be a credible source of advice at all if they continue to put out over-cautious, non-evidence-based advice. That time your MW told you to quit smoking? Maybe that's bollocks too.

grandOlejukeofYork · 28/08/2017 16:44

Alarmingly, BPAS have become 'greatly concerned' at the growing number of women who approach them seeking a termination because of unfounded fears they have harmed their baby through drinking in early pregnancy

And since Reborn likes to ask WHY, how about WHY are women so paranoid about unfounded fear of harm from drinking before finding they are pregnant? Because other women like Reborn insist on telling them that it IS harmful, even though the evidence does not in any way support this finding.

BoffinMum · 28/08/2017 17:36

Future women googling and seeing this post.
If a unit of alcohol at 5 wks was harmful in the way described, most adults over 30 in the UK would have had their life chances utterly scuppers as until about 1990 the advice was completely different.
Go figure.

mogulfield · 28/08/2017 21:16

reborn I mean this kindly, honestly, but maybe step away from this thread. It's not healthy how much time you've spent on here, do you have a job?
You're also not going to convince people who've read the science behind it.
I don't mean to sound like a bitch, although I bet I do.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page