To ask if you had a drink while pregnant

[secretdoubleagent]

So before anyone judges I'm not talking about going out and getting hammered I am meaning the occassional glass of wine with dinner.

I'm currently pregnant (13 weeks) and just really in the mood for 1 with dinner tonight. I had with my last pregnancy (maybe 3 glasses on different nights throughout the whole time) however it was not until I was much further down the line.

Just wanted to see others opinions really, I know the NHS is strickly zero, however it wasn't that long ago that it was 1 or 2 units once a week.

I can't get the picture to show but click on the link for the fetus development chart
www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=KimJtc7B&id=B55C558D9756D5A235A482AC38B8E0EE52024134&thid=OIP.KimJtc7BD6JYGkTX4O11NwHaFA&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cdc.gov%2fdotw%2ffasd%2fimages%2fchart_928px.jpg&exph=628&expw=928&q=fasd+fetus+chart&simid=608035318430174388&selectedIndex=1&ajaxhist=0

Not really sure what that is supposed to be showing us?

The advice not to drink is because they think women are too stupid to know what a unit of alcohol is. It's incredibly patronising. Anyway I'm getting cross now so I'm going to stop winding myself up reading this!

Nope and wouldn’t consider it. For the same reason I never are runny eggs or liver or any of the other things advised not to in pregnancy. I know the risk is tiny but for me, for the sake of a drink? Nah not worth it.

Runny eggs are now considered fine in pregnancy. Which just shows none of it is an exact science and advice changes all the time.

As with most things with pregnancy it is difficult to judge how much is too much as they can’t really ask people to trial it, and the people who do drink to excess are rarely honest about how much they have drank so results are not entirely reliable.

Agree with pp who said the limit went to 0 to account for people who didn’t understand the guidelines about alcohol in pregnancy.

The most recent training I did on FASD was they don’t know how much is too much - it could be one glass, it could be a bottle. They can’t say when in the pregnancy is the most vulnerable either so best advice is to avoid completely. That’s a no brainier really.

But each to their own.

If you read the NHS page about drinking alcohol while pregant you will see it clearly states that alcohol does pass from the mothers blood to the placenta.

Yes. It was years ago. My social life didn't stop and I had a few drinks on a night out every week. Not wine or spirits though. Also had runny eggs, soft cheese, pate, and had never heard of folic acid.

Not a glass of wine passing over and getting the baby drunk it doesn’t.

Most women drink before their missed period/pee on a stick. Doc told me when he confirmed pregnancy that embryo was size of a pen top so just don't drink too much from now on. As kids born in the 70s pregnancies were discovered a lot later to mothers who smoked and drank throughout their pregnancies and we seem to have turned out ok.
I think there is a critical stage of brain development when you really shouldn't drink so as not to have a child with FAS but once you're ready to pop you can chill a little as baby is already formed so a glass of wine won't hurt. If anything it will help your milk flow 👍🏻

I'm 13 weeks as well, I haven't had one just because it's the last thing I fancy right now!but if I did fancy one I definitely wouldn't begrudge myself one with dinner

Runny eggs are ok now because almost all uk eggs are from vaccinated hens. Before that, it was a small but genuine risk of salmonella etc. So that advice changed with good reason.

Light drinking is very light - I’ve been on threads like these before and seen people insist a drink or two a night is light (it isn’t.)

I am a geneticist with a background in human development- I didn’t drink at all, but then I avoided a few things that are not on the nhs list and still ate a few others - I certainly had the odd rare ish steak for example. Kept eating sushi. Not fussed about booze, or pate, or cheese.

The best data we have says;

Alcohol is a teratogenic substance (causes birth defects.)
No safe lower limit is established
People’s ability to metabolise alcohol varies a lot.
The exact points a foetus is more vulnerable are unknown - but second half of second trimester seems particularly vulnerable
The best population level data we have says that one drink once a week sort of level is NOT associated with worse outcomes.
FAS is the most severe manifestation of FASD - full FAS is not caused by the ‘single glass of fizz slowly at a wedding’ level of drinking.
The levels of alcohol that cause any effect are unknown
Exact figures vary but studies have said that roughly 2-4% of uk babies are born affected by alcohol.

So nobody should be censured or freaking out at having had a few before they found they were pregnant. No one should be worried about one unit sipped with food every now and again. At the same time it’s not a good idea to be drinking a few times a week.

Nhs guidelines on most stuff are sensible and evidence based - stick to them and you don’t go far wrong

Nothing for roughly the first half of each pregnancy (the exception was with my third child when I had a small glass on two consecutive evenings while away with a friend for my birthday at 11 weeks. With my second I turned 30 at 12 weeks and had been going to have a small glass of champagne but just didn't want it). After that a small (really small!) glass now and again, probably averaging once every 2 weeks or so. The much-quoted 1-2 units once or twice a week felt like too much to me (possibly because that's roughly what I drink when not pregnant), but I made a judgement that very occasional low levels of drinking wouldn't be harmful.

“I get sick of advice 'on the safe side' whch seems ok on a case by case basis, but when taken in the whole it makes pregnancy into some kind of puritanical abstinence challenge!”

Agree with this. People will make a huge deal about Dry January, for example - how difficult it will be for them to give up alcohol for a month. Yet pregnant women are expected to cheerfully give it up for the best part of a year - which would be alright if even a glass a week was proven to be problematic, but it isn’t.

Personally I enjoyed a few units, probably 10 over the entire pregnancy each time, but I stopped enjoying wine and it had a weird effect on me (bad mood related!)

Yes I did a couple of times and spent some considerable worrying about reading age afterwards (!).
Drinking while pregnant isn’t any good and there is plenty of evidence for this.

I'm not drinking, but just because if something went wrong I know I'd never get it out of my head that I might have played a part, regardless of how irrational that is. I had a 0% beer and whilst it was surprisingly nice I didn't even finish that. It's like a switch has flicked in my brain and I just can't touch alcohol. The rare meat and unpasteurised cheese is a much bigger struggle for me. Last week I was at a nice restaurant and really really wanted a steak, is convinced myself I'd go medium as a compromise but when the waiter came I ordered something else. I just couldn't do it. I think the NHS advice changed with good reason, there seem to be a lot of people on here who think a glass of wine is 1-2 units it's not, it's a lot more unless you're drinking half a flute of prosecco

Yes I did. Perhaps a couple of glasses of wine a month at home. If I was at a wedding or a party I'd always have a glass of champagne.

I drank caffeinated coffee too.

Both DCs are totally fine.

None dc1, none dc2 a few dc3 a few dc4 a few dc5 prob a few more dc6 but never more than one small glass in a week.

All fine. All grown up.

People quoting FAS on an odd class really are talking nonsense.

My pregnancy was completely unplanned and after years of being the designated driver and consequently not drinking at all, I had made new friends who went out using public transport, so the first 8 weeks I was drinking heavily (by my standards) each weekend. I felt incredibly guilty about this so didn't drink at all for the rest of my pregnancy. This was 1991/2 and the advice then was do not drink any alcohol whilst pregnant, so I'm a bit surprised at PP saying that the no alcohol advice is a recent thing.
If I was pregnant now, I would probably have the occasional glass of cider, beer or wine if I fancied one.

A 175ml glass of wine is 2 units

The pate thing - she was sensible. The listeriosis risk is different - more absolute than with alcohol (as far as we currently know). It only takes one lot of pate/brie/whatever with higher-than-normal levels of listeria to cause listeriosis, and the consequences can be terrible. That was one thing I was scrupulous about - though in my case, as I'm vegetarian and dislike brie/camembert, it was basically only about avoiding goat's cheese and washing salad very well.

I had a small glass whilst knowingly pregnant, acknowledged I’m not a “just wanted the one drink” sort of person and that was that for the rest of my pregnancy.

Foetal alcohol syndrome is not caused by having the odd glass of wine when pregnant. It just isn't.

Yes with both. The first I had the occasional glass from about 16 weeks. The second I had half a bottle at 4 weeks. Then found out I was pregnant.

As a guardian for 2 children with FASD I can tell you that any alcohol during pregnancy is not advised for a reason. The problem these children have a real problem which often can get diagnosed as something else as people think that a drink won’t do any harm