To have one small glass of red wine at 38 weeks pregnant?

[baby2c]

I’m not a drinker at all but DH gets a bottle of red once or twice a month and tonight I really fancy just a very small glass, I’m a weirdo (according to DH) who likes ice in red wine on the rare occasion I have it. DH is only having one glass just in case I was to go into labour and he had to drive to hospital. So I was thinking of having a tiny amount with some ice and enjoying sipping it whilst watching tv in my pjs however I’m not sure if this is totally out of order or reasonable? Would you? Or did you? I haven’t touched alcohol at all since finding out I am pregnant at 4 weeks.

Alcoholism is a genuine, serious issue, agreed.

I don't agree that using the word 'crave' is any kind of serious indicator of that. I talk about 'craving' chocolate all the time. It's just a word I use to indicate that I fancy it.

There's nothing to risk.

A small amount of alcohol just isn't a risk.

There is no known safe amount of alcohol in pregnancy. If you feel okay about drinking, go for it. I just choose not to because I feel more comfortable with that.

Yes, I agree. But it's an over-reaction by public health authorities and really, the people they want to target take no bloody notice.

Correct. I will never not feel annoyed reading these threads.

About 15 years, I was working on a research project that required a long term dive into the FAS research which underpins these guidelines. I was astonished at the relatively little meaningful data that formed the basis of 'official' advice to all pregnant women. Entire blocks of 'official' advice based on cases of FAS in indigenous populations where women were drinking up to 40 units of alcohol per day, is one example.

Things are no better now. FAS is an awful outcome, but people here are talking about the 'risks' of one glass of wine in the same breath as FAS. There is no risk of FAS with one glass of wine. None whatsoever.

I'm not being critical of people who are just repeating the same old lines that echo around this subject - 'no alcohol is safe' etc. We need better research, better public information, more respect for women's bodies, and better science education so that people can actually apply some common sense.

It's exactly the same as the mantra in relation to breastfeeding. And in the 70s/80s public health advised babies be put to sleep on their fronts.

But we don't know how much alcohol is safe (the research even states that), so some of us prefer to opt on the safe side of none. I don't drink coffee when pregnant either. We all make choices we think are good for our child, starting during pregnancy. I really don't care what anyone else chooses to do, but I know how I like to do things. I also don't feel the need to defend my choices because I'm comfortable with them.

What is the risk?

The research states that because the research is largely inadequate. It's difficult, time consuming and expensive to research the subject properly and turn that research into meaningful, accurate public information and health policy.

That relative void is filled with MWs suggesting a glass or two of wine, women being critical of other women, and people accusing pregnant women of neglecting their unborn children because they had one glass of wine. I've interviewed women who were beside themselves with guilt and worry throughout their pregnancies because of drinking a few glasses of wine in the first trimester, and they could access little or no information to reassure themselves.

I find it incredibly frustrating to see how little how things have improved.

Well it's impossible to do an ethical study, unless relying on self-reported data, which might be unreliable.

For me, if there's a question, I'll choose to avoid it. Especially in the first trimester, but so many women do have something before they know they are pregnant, and it doesn't seem to have done any harm. I think I had one with my first when I was sure I wasn't pregnant but was. I wouldn't have done it by choice though.

If someone is comfortable having a glass of wine, that's up to them, but it's not my choice to do so. Just like it's my choice not to drink coffee when pregnant, to only have one routine ultrasound scan at 20 weeks and none of the others, etc. I'm not a drinker anyway, so don't find it any hardship.

What about exercise?!? Should no pregnant woman exercise just in case they overdo it and it harms the baby?

@dogsarethebestalways

wanna cookie?? 🍪

Only if it's gluten free.

It's impossible to do an dedicated study, but surely there is data that can be analysed?

Surely if small amounts of alcohol make a difference, you'd see differences in outcome pre and post guidance changing?

Or differences in outcomes in countries where guidance is different?

I've never seen any data analysis like that though. Has anyone?

When you think about the ordinary ill effects of alcohol on anyone, though, none of that is stuff I would have personally wanted to deal with on top of being pregnant. I had a rough first pregnancy though, absolute bone shattering fatigue the entire time, and I felt like complete shite. For me, the fact that alcohol is a depressant was reason enough to abstain. It was no hardship to me.

Quite a lot of us who have answered the OPs question with "I wouldn't/ didn't" and have been told we are misogynists(!), anti-science, ill-educuated, Aunt Lydia from A Handmaid's Tale(!). It's actually insane.

@dogsarethebestalways

did you wear make up in pregnancy? Fake tan? Drive a car? Cross a road? Walk down stairs?

The advice from the Royal College of Gynaecologists is clearly intended to stop people drinking heavily, rather than at all, while protecting itself from any possible accusations of encouraging drinking

This is from their site; for breastfeeding mothers they advise no more than 14 (14!!!) units a week. A mother who has been drinking (suggesting repeated instances in the early stages of pregnancy) during pregnancy is reassured that the chances are that the baby will be fine. No encouragement to go to the GP to fess up and get a barrage of tests to see if the baby is ok.

Mothers-to-be should do whatever they think is appropriate for the health of their baby. People are different and will have varying attitudes to risk. Nobody would advise pregnant women to drink but there is no evidence to suggest that having an occasional drink poses any risk to mother or baby. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that it's safe either - because nobody has carried out the necessary research, not because anyone scientific thinks that it's dangerous.

Your post is absolutely fine, you made the decision for you, and I also didn't drink during pregnancy, mainly because I didn't feel like it. I also stopped eating broccoli!

However, some posters have banged on about "risks" without quantifying them, called the OP selfish for considering a small drink, talked about recent research, while I for one am assuming they carried out with some risky activities themselves.
Life is not without risk, I drove a car, I worked, I did some exercise, I accidentally went near some goats in my first trimester, and I ate some cake while pregnant.

I wonder if there are some posters on here who simply take no risks, or if they just like trying to scare other people by talking about "risks" without really knowing what it means.

I think people can be very poor at judging risk though. When my eldest DD was 15 she and a friend went to stay with another friend who had moved away. The original plan was for the girls to travel by train. It was a 3 hour journey with no changes and they were being dropped off and picked up from the station at either end. Both sensible girls, with phones, and used to traveling by train. The friend's father decided it was far too risky for them to travel alone on the train so drove them instead. More than 200 mile drive each way felt like a less risky option to him. I went with it as in my view the risk was still low enough to be acceptable but am sure the train would have been a significantly safer option overall. Not relevant to the thread of course but I always think of it when issues of risk assessment arise.

I don't wear make up, would be even less likely to wear fake tan (ugh). Drive a car. Of course. Cross a road. Likely. Walk down stairs? Not sure about that one. Considering the pushchair and the number of kids I dragged around me, I was probably taking the elevator.

I really don't see why it matters so much to you that I choose not to drink when I'm pregnant just to err on the safe side. It affects my life not one bit if you do or don't, so do whatever you want. It's really not that relevant to me anyway because I don't drink when I'm not pregnant either. I don't like the taste.

The degree to which you feel the need to justify your feeling okay with drinking during pregnancy makes me wonder how much you drank when pregnant.

I don't care what other people do when they are pregnant. There are no consequences to my life what other people do. I only mentioned what I decided for me on the basis there is no known safe level. That doesn't mean there isn't a safe level, just that it hasn't been established. It's unlikely I'd have drunk anything anyway because, as I said, I don't like it.

The most likely approach would be self-report data in a longitudinal study to evaluate outcomes relative to drinking levels. The main problem is that self-report data is likely to be inaccurate. I suspect under reporting might be the biggest issue.

I can't imagine many women took no avoidable risks in pregnancy. The car/vehicle thing alone covers the large majority. It's the latter. People who don't have a full enough understanding of what constitutes risk in pregnancy to realise that any criticism from them means they're liable to be throwing stones from their glass house. Hence the poster who all of a sudden became very busy when it was time to explain why unnecessarily travelling by car didn't count as risky behaviour, for example.

Why would it have to be self reported?

You could just look at data for outcomes pre and post a guidance change and if there was significant difference it would be clear in the data.

Life is risk. We all just do what we are most comfortable with as individuals.

That would be another approach but people might not recall accurately as that's going back a fair way. Not every woman would have drunk back then either. I remember my own parents only drank anything on special occasions, rarely. More to do with affordability than choice. If we're measuring quantity of alcohol consumed, that would be harder. If someone has sufficient interest, there's a research topic for someone. :-)