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Original poster

To ask if you drank alcohol during pregnancy

479 replies

Butterflyflower1234 · 14/02/2020 08:52

I'm curious as to people thoughts on alcohol during pregnancy?

I was always of the opinion that I wouldn't touch a single drop of alcohol during pregnancy but now I'm wondering would it be significantly harmful to have say one small glass of wine with dinner every so often (less than once a fortnight).

OP posts:
MarchDaffs · 15/02/2020 16:47

I wouldn’t give a baby anything other than BM or formula. But I wouldn’t expect to subsist on this during pregnancy. What a bizarre point.

Yeah, in a thread that's absolutely suffused with stupid, that argument is easily in the top three.

Oysterbabe · 15/02/2020 16:48

I wouldn’t give a baby anything other than BM or formula. But I wouldn’t expect to subsist on this during pregnancy. What a bizarre point.

It's really not. Alcohol is absorbed into the blood and crosses the placenta into the baby. It's exactly the same as if the baby had drank it, it will have the same blood alcohol level as you. This is not the same as eating a pizza, it's not like feeding a baby pizza. Most things consumed enter the blood as glucose.

flower1994 · 15/02/2020 16:49

theres a small risk I could slip over in the bath. should people abstain from washing? or only if its non essential. I could fall down the stairs. should I move into a bungalow? alcohol is a drug that you can avoid. stop being so ridiculous. the car argument can be applied to absolutely everything in life

LaurieMarlow · 15/02/2020 16:49

Yeah, in a thread that's absolutely suffused with stupid, that argument is easily in the top three.

Full disclosure, I nicked that response from someone upthread, possibly you Blush because it’s such a good counter to a stupid point.

SnoozyLou · 15/02/2020 16:50

*A six week college study

Forgive me if I’m not taking that too seriously.*

I really don't see the issue. Clearly bona fide research. I'm sure they published a paper on it in The Lancet.

kingkuta · 15/02/2020 16:51

Did you not consider when you did your college study HJWT that the mothers of the babies with FAS could be lying about the amount of alcohol they drank?

ClubfootMaestro · 15/02/2020 16:52

alcohol is a drug that you can avoid

So is paracetamol - do you try to demean and judge women who take that in pregnancy?

LaurieMarlow · 15/02/2020 16:53

the car argument can be applied to absolutely everything in life

Yes it can.

And just to be clear, I’m not advocating people avoid unnecessary car travel.

I’m just making the point about how we handle small and very small risks. We think of them in the overall picture and make our decisions accordingly.

But given the infinitesimally small risk (if it can even be demonstrated, which I haven’t seen) of very occasional drinking - why the outrage?

Why the not equal outrage about other very small (and more demonstrable) risks?

flower1994 · 15/02/2020 16:54

MarchDaffs huh? so you made the point I shouldn't respond what I said at you cos you're not a drinker but when I said it's not specifically at you it should be because its your argument? love it when people make sense

elliejjtiny · 15/02/2020 16:54

Had half a glass of champagne at cousin's wedding when I didn't realise I was pregnant with dc2 (would have been 3 weeks pregnant). Nothing with any of the others.

cologne4711 · 15/02/2020 16:55

So is paracetamol - do you try to demean and judge women who take that in pregnancy

When I was pregnant I had a very bad cold at about 6/7 months and didn't want to take anything. It was DH who said it was probably better to reduce my temperature than worry about "drugs".

I have no doubt that the judgmental perfect virtue signallers on here would judge that too though.

flower1994 · 15/02/2020 16:58

ClubfootMaestro how am I demeaning women who drink because I don't personally think its worth the risk? people wanna get thicker skin if they're gonna cry about that. if people who drank alcohol didnt feel bad about it why are there so many threads on here asking the question Confused

cologne4711 · 15/02/2020 16:58

I did a study on it for 6 weeks when I was in college, most women who have baby's with FAS are not alcoholics and just liked a regular glass of wine with their evening meal

A glass of wine a day sounds like a lot during pregnancy and isn't the 1/2 units a week that was "permitted" when I was pregnant.

But I don't think you did a six week study on it.

Theroigne · 15/02/2020 17:00

One or two units one or twice a week, in the later months. They were the guidelines at the time.

cologne4711 · 15/02/2020 17:00

Why the not equal outrage about other very small (and more demonstrable) risks

Because we're such a puritanical society when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth. That also came through in the birth traditions thread where people were talking about other countries. Childbirth is meant to be painful and unpleasant in the UK, whereas in eg in France they don't think women should be martyrs (I bet they don't ban wine for the duration of the pregnancy either).

SlowMoFuckingToes · 15/02/2020 17:01

Oh this is bloody infuriating. If you're so convinced based on absolutely nothing that a known teratogen is harmless in whatever you deem small quantities then please do submit the study to an ethics committee you please. No amount of alcohol is permissible to give to a pregnant woman in a study because it's bloody poisonous to the baby. A teratogen isn't a substance that may be harmful it IS harmful to the baby. Otherwise it wouldn't be a bloody teratogen! You don't know and I don't know what dose you need to see the worst possible outcome of FAS or stillbirth. FAS is one of the worst outcomes but it's not the only outcome. Behavioural problems etc have all been linked to alcohol use in pregnancy. The absence of data does not equate to the absence of harm by any fucking stretch.

MarchDaffs · 15/02/2020 17:03

the car argument can be applied to absolutely everything in life

Bingo, I think she's got it!

The point to take from this is that all pregnant women take risks they could avoid. Some of which, like car travel, we actually know to be dangerous in a way that we don't know one instance of alcohol consumption is. But for whatever reason, many of us are in denial about this and some of us choose to make a much bigger song and dance about the avoidable risk of minimal alcohol consumption than about others.

I don't think not washing is a realistic choice, especially not if you need to earn a living, but loads of other things that pregnant women could abstain from are. Women absolutely could avoid all non-essential car travel during pregnancy. It's just that most of us don't, because we judge the benefits to us, ie getting to do things we want to do, to be more significant than the small risk. This is the same process that women who choose to drink have the odd drink go through.

MarchDaffs huh? so you made the point I shouldn't respond what I said at you cos you're not a drinker but when I said it's not specifically at you it should be because its your argument?

No, I made the points that you were a)wrong and b)deflecting.

SnoozyLou · 15/02/2020 17:03

@HJWT was this study conducted in a controlled, clinical situation, where you monitored alcohol intakes for both the alcoholic group, and the "just like a glass of wine with my meal" group? Obviously there would need to be a control group too. It's just hard to reconcile as I thought the BMA said there had never been a study of this sort in the UK. Unless you're overseas of course.

auslass · 15/02/2020 17:04

I wouldn't judge someone for having the odd one with dinner every few weeks, but I read about a study recently that the telegraph reported on, saying even small amounts can correlate with developmental issues etc. So I personally wouldn't risk it. I was super sick in the first trimester with HG, and still am quite ill at 27 weeks. So I don't miss it at all.

If I was to give advice, I would say not to bother, its only one, so why not make it none to be on the safe side.

Good lord the amount of money I now save!! Wink

DesLynamsMoustache · 15/02/2020 17:05

I didn't. I think there's a lot we still don't know about the effects of alcohol and other substances on a developing fetus. Recent research has found cellular changes with very little alcohol (one drink's worth) so I think there's a lot of research still to do about what that might mean on a developmental level outside of FAS. It seems to be very much a work in progress.

It just didn't seem worth it to me for the sake of a few drinks, and it's such little time, really, in the grand scale of life. I've gone longer than that without drinking when not pregnant tbh. But if others want to, it's not my concern. I did what I felt was best for my own baby, as others do with theirs.

flower1994 · 15/02/2020 17:06

MarchDaffs how rude are you just because someone doesnt agree with you, especially over something that you dont personally do yourself

alohamore · 15/02/2020 17:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Oneliner · 15/02/2020 17:09

No, I wanted a healthy baby.

MarchDaffs · 15/02/2020 17:10

MarchDaffs how rude are you just because someone doesnt agree with you, especially over something that you dont personally do yourself

Pointing out the large holes and double standards in stupid arguments isn't rude, and tone policing is what people do when they haven't got any other points to make in their favour.

DesLynamsMoustache · 15/02/2020 17:12

Also to those saying one drink a day is beyond the realms of what is being talked about, PPs have referred to Expecting Better (which is often cited and recommended on here), which actually says:

'It's fine to have the occasional glass of wine – even one every day – in the second and third trimesters.'

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